If she had loved him he would have clasped her to his heart, telling her of his deep devotion and begging her to forget what had happened just now.
But he fancied she would not have tolerated that, so he drew a chair to her side, and venturing to touch one of her cold hands caressingly, said, tenderly:
“Viola, I hope you will forget the scene of just now. It was most embarrassing for us both, but my mother, who has been an invalid several months, was overcome by surprise and excitement. She and Mae have been very silly in their fancies, for I never thought of the dear child only as a cousin or sister. I have been in love with you long before you ever saw me or heard my name, though you would never have known it but for the happenings of tonight.”
Viola started, glanced keenly at him, then dropped her eyes again without a word, and he did not dream how he had eased her heart with those simple words: “I have been in love with you long before you ever saw me or heard my name.”
“How strange! I wonder where he first saw me,” she mused, for but a moment ago her heart had been racked by the fear that he shared little Mae’s pain of hopeless love—that she had come between them by almost asking him to marry her outright to save her from tomorrow’s keen humiliation.
To have added this blunder to her other trials must have driven poor Viola nearer insanity than she was already.
Rolfe Maxwell continued in his deep, musical tone that had in it the soothing note we use to a hurt child:
“When you know mother better, you will find that she is incapable of knowingly giving pain. She will prepare our little spare room for you presently, for I am sure you are weary and would like to be alone. In the meantime, let me take your hat and jacket away, and then I will brew you some tea. Would you not like it?”
Viola assented wearily, and he waited on her with the tenderness of a lover and the skill of a woman.
The bright, warm little parlor seemed very cozy after her adventures that cold March night, and she actually swallowed the fragrant tea Rolfe put to her lips, though she had fancied she would choke in the effort.