Peggy smiled pitifully. It was so like Rosalind to be distressed at the idea of losing a love she could not return, and to show a pathetic eagerness to make a wrong step right. Her own Spartan judgment could never overlook the sin of preferring money before love, but she realised that it was too late in the day to preach this doctrine, and cast about in her mind for more practical advice.
“If you try to make him happy, that will be your best plan, Rosalind. If I were in your place, I’d try to forget about the past, and think only of the future. I’d find out the very best in him, and be proud of it, and study his tastes, so that I might be able to talk about the things he liked best, and be a real companion to him, and I’d be grateful to him for his love, and try to love him in return. Every one says he is a good fellow and devoted to you, so it ought not to be difficult.”
“No–o!” echoed Rosalind doubtfully. “Only if you are going to love people, you genewally do it without twying, and if you don’t love them, little things aggwavate you, and rub you the wong way, which you would never notice in people you really cared for! Everscourt is a good fellow, but he worries me to distwaction sometimes, and I am so afraid of getting cwoss. I don’t want him to think me bad-tempered. I think your plan is very good, Peggy, and I will try to follow it. I ought to succeed, for you see how anxious I am to do what is right! You can’t call me selfish this time, can you, for I am thinking only of his happiness!”
Peggy lifted her brows with arch reproach. “Oh, Rosalind, no! You think you are, but you are really distressed about your own position, in case he may ever think you any less charming and angelic than he does at this moment. It’s your own vanity that concerns you, far more than his happiness.”
“You have no business to say anything of the kind. If he is disappointed in me, won’t that make him miserable, and if I twy to please him, is not that making him happy in the best way possible? But you always think the worst of me, Peggy Saville, and put a wong constwuction on what I do. When I pay you the compliment of coming to you for help, I do think you might be a little kinder and more sympathetic.”
“It would be easier to say a lot of polite things that I didn’t wean. It is the best proof that I do care for your happiness that I have the courage to be disagreeable. You know, Rosalind, the plain truth is that you want to act a part to gain admiration and applause, but it’s absurd to think you can go on doing that all your life, and to a person who is with you on every occasion. It must be real, not pretence, if it is to succeed, so try not to think so much about his opinion of you, and more about how you can help him, and be the sort of wife he wants. And if he worries you in any little way, tell him so quietly, and don’t let it get into a habit. I’m talking as if I were seventy-seven at the very least, and had been married a dozen times over, but you know how easy it is to preach to other people and how clearly one can see their duty! As a matter of fact, I know nothing whatever about it, but one can argue with so much more freedom when one is not hampered with facts! I am sorry if I have seemed unkind, but—”
“No, no! I know what you mean. I think you are vewy kind to me, Peggy, considering—considering everything!” murmured Rosalind softly. She sat silent for a moment, gathering courage to ask another question which was fluttering to her lips.
“Will—will—do you think Arthur will be vewy miserable?”
Peggy’s little form stiffened at that into a poker of wounded dignity. She felt it in the worst possible taste of Rosalind to have introduced her brother’s name into the conversation, and was in arms at once at the tone of commiseration.
“My brother and I had a talk on the subject when I was in town,” she replied coldly, “and he entirely agreed with me that it was the best thing for you. He will be in no wise surprised, but only relieved that the arrangement is completed. He is very well and in good spirits, and is coming down next week with Eunice Rollo to pay us a visit, when we have planned a succession of amusements.”