Nell turned to her quite brightly, as she replied,—
‘Yes, yes, I hope you will. I should like to think that you and he thought of me sometimes as your truest, though humblest friend. For that indeed I am to both of you.’
‘I feel you are; I shall tell Ilfracombe so this very night,’ said Nora. ‘Kiss me once more, Nell, and thank you a thousand times. Oh, how I wish I could repay you!’
‘You will repay me by making him happy. But—you wear a silk handkerchief, Lady Ilfracombe—if you would give me that, in remembrance of this meeting, I should prize it more than I can say.’
Nora tore it impetuously off her throat.
‘Take it!’ she exclaimed, as she knotted it round that of Nell. ‘How I wish you had asked for my jewellery case instead.’
Nell smiled faintly.
‘I never valued jewels,’ she said, ‘though there was a time when I had plenty to wear. But this soft, little handkerchief that has touched your neck, it shall go with me to my grave.’
So they parted, the countess dancing up the meadow steep again, with her letters in her hand, as if earth held no further care for her, and Nell walking slowly down the incline that led to the road, her head bent upon her breast, and her eyes cast downwards. One going up to the greatest joy that life holds for any woman, the love and faith of an honest man; the other going downwards to all that was abhorrent and loathly. The success of the one dependent on the failure of the other; the happiness of the one due to the despair of the other; the triumph of the one built on the sacrifice of the other. Nora, who had been so self-willed and rebellious through life, saved from the effects of her escapades by Nell, who had borne her lot so patiently, and taken all her disappointments as righteous retribution. It appears unequal; but it is the way things are worked in this world. The race is not always to the swift nor the battle to the strong. In the next world there will be dust and ashes for some of the great and fortunate ones of this earth, and crowns for the lowly and the despised. And Nell Llewellyn’s crown will sparkle with jewels as heaven is studded with its stars.