"I don't mean a theatrical Ophelia, singing songs and spilling flowers; I mean Ophelia drowned—" she threw herself on the sward, her arms crossed on her bosom, and in the moonlight they could see her eyes closed as if by death.
"Help me down, Hubert. That girl will go mad some day." He reached the earth and he gave her a hand. Berenice had arisen. Sulkily she said:—
"Shall I step into the Dark Tarn of Auber and float for you? I'll make a realistic picture, my Master Painter—who paints without imagination." And then she darted into the shrubbery and was lost to view. Without further speech the two regained the path and returned to the house.
II
THE CRIMSON SPLASH
When Éloise was asked by Berenice how long Monsieur Mineur would remain away on his tour, she did not reply. Rather, she put a question herself: why this sudden solicitude about the little-loved stepfather. Berenice jokingly answered that she thought of slipping away to Switzerland for a vacance on her own account. Éloise, who was not agreeable looking, viewed her charge suspiciously.
"Young lady, you are too deep for me. But you'll bear watching," she grimly confessed. Berenice skipped about her teasingly.
"I know something, but I won't tell, unless you tell."
"What is it?"
"Will you tell?"