Tears rose to her eyes.
“Yes; but you cannot help me to bear it. It is
something which I must not tell to anyone. I must just bear my burden alone. Do not ask me any more.”
“I won’t, and I’ll manage things for you. Run upstairs now, and keep quiet. I’ll tell mother when we get to Richmond that you were a bit seedy; but that a few hours of rest will put you right.”
He hurried off, and a few moments later Leslie from her window saw the carriage party get under way. Soon afterwards, Llewellyn and Hester started off for the railway station. Leslie found herself alone. She sat down by her window, and tried to face the position. It had not been the first time she had made a gallant effort to do so.
“What am I to do?” she said now to herself. But the answer came quickly.
“Live it down,” was the reply of her heart. “Be true to your sense of honor. Save your friend if you can. Bear the terrible and cruel position in which you are placed. Trust to God putting things right.”
“But the dreadful part of it is,” thought poor Leslie, “that He is making me so hard. I almost hate Annie Colchester. I did not know it was in me to feel so bad about anything. There is one thing certain: I shall never be able to endure Mr. Parker’s eyes. I shall have to leave the room or the house when he comes to see us. There, I must not sit still any longer. Poor darling Lew; he little knows what I am really suffering.”
Early in the afternoon there came a ring at the front door, and who should be seen standing on the threshold but the well-known figure of Belle Acheson!
Leslie ran to let her in.