“Don Quixote,” answered Christie, too much abashed to have her wits about her.
Helen smiled a melancholy smile as she rose, saying wearily:
“They gave me that to make me laugh, but I did not find it funny; neither was it sad enough to make me cry as you do.”
“I was not reading, I was”—there Christie broke down, and could have cried with vexation at the bad beginning she had made. But that involuntary tear was better balm to Helen than the most perfect tact, the most brilliant conversation. It touched and won her without words, for sympathy works miracles. Her whole face changed, and her mournful eyes grew soft as with the gentle freedom of a child she lifted Christie’s downcast face and said, with a falter in her voice:
“I know you were pitying me. Well, I need pity, and from you I’ll take it, because you don’t force it on me. Have you been ill and wretched too? I think so, else you would never care to come and shut yourself up here with me!”
“I have been ill, and I know how hard it is to get one’s spirits back again. I’ve had my troubles, too, but not heavier than I could bear, thank God.”
“What made you ill? Would you mind telling me about it? I seem to fancy hearing other people’s woes, though it can’t make mine seem lighter.”
“A piece of the Castle of the Sun fell on my head and nearly killed me,” and Christie laughed in spite of herself at the astonishment in Helen’s face. “I was an actress once; your mother knows and didn’t mind,” she added, quickly.
“I’m glad of that. I used to wish I could be one, I was so fond of the theatre. They should have consented, it would have given me something to do, and, however hard it is, it couldn’t be worse than this.” Helen spoke vehemently and an excited flush rose to her white cheeks; then she checked herself and dropped into a chair, saying, hurriedly:
“Tell about it: don’t let me think; it’s bad for me.” Glad to be set to work, and bent on retrieving her first mistake, Christie plunged into her theatrical experiences and talked away in her most lively style. People usually get eloquent when telling their own stories, and true tales are always the most interesting. Helen listened at first with a half-absent air, but presently grew more attentive, and when the catastrophe came sat erect, quite absorbed in the interest of this glimpse behind the curtain.