Jess had sprung to her feet trembling like a leaf. “I cannot see him, indeed I cannot, Queenie,” she cried in an agitated voice, “and I assure you, oh, so earnestly, that the marriage can never, never take place!”
“Fie, fie!” cried Queenie, “I will not listen to anything like that. You have taken an aversion to him, but that is certain to wear off when you know him better. You know, dear, that there is a whole world of truth in the old saying that ‘the course of true love never does run smooth.’ You are sure to have your little differences at first—love tiffs, as some call them—but it will all come out all right in the end. I am sure you are too sensible a girl, Jess, to want to back out now, after your fiancé has made every arrangement for his wedding with you. It would be the height of impropriety, dear.”
“Will you believe me that I can never, never marry him now, Queenie?” whispered the girl, earnestly. “Do not let him come. I do not want to see him. I will not see him.”
“Do not be so willful, Jess,” exclaimed her friend, gathering her arched brows into a decided frown. “I have asked him to come, and I cannot recall the invitation without hurting my old friend and playfellow to the very depths of his honest, loving heart. I could not be so cruel when you have no just cause to offer as to why you do not wish to meet him again, save a prejudice which should not exist. Surely you cannot find so much fault with him for loving you so devotedly; that is a trait to recommend, not one to blame. As you go through life, Jess, you will learn one of its greatest lessons, and that is, never to despise an honest, true love, for indeed there is little enough of it to be met with.”
“All that you say is true from your point of view, Queenie,” returned the girl, in a distressed, husky voice, “but I repeat, I can never marry him now—never!”
“You would rather see a splendid fortune flung to the winds!” said Queenie, impatiently, and with something very like a covert sneer in her voice. “Remember, if you throw him over, you make not only a beggar of yourself for life, but a beggar of him, and that you have no right to do.
“He has always looked upon himself as his uncle’s heir, and you, by your action, would change that, willfully and pitilessly. You would wreck him for life, not only in his heart’s affection, but in his worldly prospects. And last, but by no means least, you would defy the will and the wish of the man who gave you shelter at Blackheath Hall all these years, instead of having you sent to some foundling’s home. Surely your gratitude to him deserves compliance with his wise decree.”
Queenie had used all her weapons of argument, and she stopped short, looking at Jess to see the effect of her words upon her. Jess was as pale as a snowdrop, and great tears trembled on her long, curling lashes.
“It can never be,” she reiterated in a trembling voice. “I beg of you to say no more about it, Queenie. Only let me have my way in not seeing him, if you would be kind to me.”
“I refuse to wound the man who loves you so dearly by giving him such a cruel message,” replied Queenie, coldly and harshly.