Jin must have been hard hit, for she actually blushed.
"Both, of course," was her reply. "Everything is pleasanter, I suppose, when it's done with pleasant people."
The tone was rather too careless, and her hand shook while she poured out a cup of coffee. Mrs. Lascelles, noticing this trepidation, felt her heart sink within her.
"The company was pleasant enough last night," said she, "as far as our box was concerned; but I don't think people all amused themselves equally. Helen, for instance, seemed bored to death. She does not look well, and I am sure she is not happy. I'm very fond of her, Jin, and so are you. What is it, do you think? and how can we do her good?"
These ladies were not fairly matched. Mrs. Lascelles became flurried and nervous as she neared the point of collision. Miss Ross, on the contrary, grew steadier and cooler with the immediate approach of danger.
"I don't think Helen knows her own mind," she replied; "girls very seldom do. You must surely have observed in your personal experience, Rose, that
"Too many lovers will puzzle a maid."
Mrs. Lascelles accepted the implied compliment with a forced smile, but it did not turn her from her object.
"Helen is unlike most girls," she answered; "and I don't fancy any number of lovers would make amends to her for losing the one she has set her heart on. People are so different, you know, and Helen's is one of those deep, quiet, reserved natures that suffer awfully, though they suffer in silence. I think, Jin, between you and me, that Helen likes Somebody, and that Somebody would like her if it wasn't for Somebody else!"
Though almost sublime in its ambiguity, Miss Ross understood this "dark sentence" perfectly, and scorned to affect misconception of its purport.