Marian could not answer him, neither was it necessary that she should. He was satisfied to have her there, and with her sitting at his side, and holding his hand in hers, he became as gentle as a child. Occasionally he called her “little girl,” but oftener “Marian,” and when he said that name, he always smoothed her hair, as if he pitied her, and knew he had done her a wrong. And Marian felt each day more and more that the wound she hoped had partly healed was bleeding afresh with a new pain, for while he talked of Marian as a mother talks of an unfortunate child, he spoke of Isabel with all a lover’s pride, and each word was a dagger to the heart of the patient watcher, who sat beside him day and night, until her eyes were heavy, and her cheeks were pale with her unbroken vigils.
“Do you then love this Isabel so much?” she said to him one day, and sinking his voice to a whisper he replied, “Yes, and I love you, too, though not like her, because I loved her first.”
“And Marian?” questioned the young girl, “Don’t you love her?”
Oh, how eagerly she waited for the answer, which when it came almost broke her heart.
“Not as I ought to—not as I have prayed that I might, and not as I should, perhaps, if she hadn’t been to me what she is. Poor child,” he continued, brushing away the tears which rolled like rain down Marian’s cheeks, “poor child, are you crying for Marian?”
“Yes—yes, for Marian—for poor heart-broken me;” and the wretched girl buried her face in the pillow beside him, for he held her firmly by the wrist, and she could not get away.
In this manner several days went by, and over the intellect so obscured there shone no ray or reason, while the girlish face grew whiter and whiter each morning light, and at last the physician said that she must rest, or her strength would be exhausted.
“Let me stay a little longer,” she pleaded—“stay at least until Miss Huntington arrives.”
“Miss who?” asked the doctor. “Do you then know his family?”
“A friend of mine knows them,” answered Marian, a deep flush stealing over her cheek.