“Go. Make haste. Mrs. Dale wants you!” cried Mabin bitterly.
And without leaving him time to protest or explain, she ran away.
That evening passed uncomfortably for both Mabin and Mrs. Dale. When they met at dinner, they both showed traces of recent tears on their pretty faces, and both unwisely tried to behave as if nothing had happened to disturb the usual course of things.
Mrs. Dale did indeed make advances toward a modified half-confidence; but it was so abundantly evident that she did so against her will, and that she was afraid of saying too much, that she repelled rather than encouraged the shy, proud girl.
Rudolph did not return. This was another sore point with poor Mabin, who ended by persuading herself that Mrs. Dale had succeeded in alienating from her the affections of her lover.
So that the hours dragged wearily by until bed-time, and both ladies showed an unusual anxiety to get early to bed.
But next morning there was a change in Mrs. Dale’s manner; she had lost her feverish high spirits, and was in such a state of nervous irritability that even the sound of Mabin’s voice, coldly asking a question at the breakfast-table, made her start and flush painfully. Her eyes were heavy; her cheeks were white; there were dark lines under her eyes which told of a sleepless night.
Mabin felt sorry for her, and was quite ready to “kiss and be friends.” After all, she said to herself with resignation not unmingled with bitterness, if Rudolph found the lovely widow with the interesting history more attractive than a girl with no fascinating mystery attached to her, it was not his fault, and it was not surprising. She felt ashamed now of her jealousy and ill-temper of the previous evening, excusable as they had been. And she deliberately made up her mind that, whatever happened, she would take matters quietly; and even if Rudolph deserted her altogether for Mrs. Dale, that she would give him up without a murmur, whatever the effort cost her.
After all, what was the use, she said to herself with a heavy sigh, of trying to keep a man’s love against his will? It had been a very fleeting happiness, that of his love; but the superstitious feeling the girl had had about its suddenness made her inclined to accept the loss of it as inevitable; and no one would have guessed, from her calm manner and measured voice, that Mabin was suffering the keenest sorrow she had ever known.
It was Mrs. Dale who was reticent to-day. She told Mabin that she expected a visitor that evening, but she did not say who it was. And from the fever which burned in her eyes, and the restlessness which increased upon her as the day went on, the young girl guessed that some matter of great importance was to be discussed or arranged.