[XXXIII — VIOLET REGAINS HER LIBERTY]
THE light was fading when Violet Wayne lay in a low chair by the fire in Hester Earle’s drawing-room. A bitter wind wailed dolefully outside among the swaying trees, and the room was growing dusky, but now and then a flickering blaze from the hearth forced up the girl’s face out of the shadow. It was, so Hester who sat opposite her fancied, curiously weary, and there was a suggestive listlessness in her attitude. She had, though few of those who met her would have suspected it, been living under a constant strain during the last two or three months, and it was a relief to feel that for the time at least she could relax her efforts to preserve her customary serenity. Hester evidently understood this, for she was a young woman of discernment, and the two were close friends.
“I am glad you have asked the Cochrane girls to stay with you, Violet,” she said. “I think you need stirring up, and though there is not a great deal in Lily Cochrane or her sister, nobody could accuse them of undue quietness. They are coming?”
“I believe so, but Lily seemed uncertain whether she could get away, and was to telegraph us to-night. Still, I almost fancy I would rather be without them. There are times when one scarcely feels equal to entertaining anybody.”
Hester nodded sympathetically. “Of course, but it is in just such cases the effort is most likely to prove beneficial,” she said. “Have you had any word from Tony since he left?”
“Two or three lines written in pencil from Havana. He was going into the country to find Mr. Appleby.”
Hester gazed thoughtfully at the fire for awhile, and then suddenly fixed her eyes upon her companion’s face.
“We have been friends since the time we wore short frocks, and that implies a good deal,” she said. “Now, it is a little more difficult to deceive me than the rest—and I have been concerned about you lately. I wonder if I dare ask you if you have quite forgiven Tony?”
“I don’t know”; and Violet’s voice was a trifle strained. “I feel that I should—but it is difficult, and I can’t convince myself. It may be a little easier by and by.”
Hester made a little sympathetic gesture, though she was almost astonished, for it was seldom that Violet Wayne revealed her feelings.