It was in the apple-room, where the winter fruit was stored, that Minnie confided to Eweretta that she had a sweetheart.
“He’s a clerk in the Gasworks,” she explained, “and he often comes over, and we meet in the rickyard; but I daren’t let father and mother know, because they say I shan’t have a young man till I’m turned twenty-one. Harry—his name is Henry Johnson—and I met in Hollington Wood in the spring. I had gone over to the churchyard to put some flowers on grandmother’s grave, and he came in from the wood, and we got talking, and he walked with me to the tram. That was the beginning. He is so nice, and quiet, and respectable. I am sure father and mother couldn’t dislike him. But, you see, they are so determined I shall turn twenty-one before I am engaged. We aren’t really engaged, Miss Le Breton, you know, but we both know we shall be. It’s a long time to wait, for I am only nineteen.”
“It is best to wait a long time,” said Eweretta. “Men change so.”
Minnie looked at her companion with incredulous round eyes.
“Some men, perhaps,” she said, as if grudgingly conceding something. “But not men who really and truly love,” she added.
“Yes,” rejoined Eweretta, “even those who love really and truly fall out of love sometimes. They don’t mean to do it. It is not a crime. No one ought to blame them for it. But I think love ought to be well tested before marriage. If the failing of love comes before marriage it is only very sad. If it comes after marriage, then it is tragic.”
Minnie looked at the speaker bewildered. To her love, once felt, was a thing eternal. At last, after a few moments of rapid thought, an explanation of the strange words she had just heard came to her, and she said with a sympathetic ring in her voice:
“Have you lost a lover, Miss Le Breton? If so, I am—oh! so sorry!”
Eweretta smiled an April smile, and gently laying her hand on Minnie’s said: “Yes, but don’t be sorry. I am glad, for it has saved me much worse pain.”
There were tears in Minnie’s bright eyes as she repeated: “Oh, but I am so sorry!”