“Why ridiculous?” echoed Joan. “My dear, how could it be anything else? Five days ago, when we were all together, there wasn’t a sign of such a thing. Stanor was attracted by you, of course; but he was not in love. He was always cheerful, always merry. How different from poor Robert, who is eating his heart out for Honor Ward!”
“I hope,” said Pixie deeply, “that Stanor will always keep cheerful. It won’t be my fault if he does not. No man shall ‘eat his heart out’ for me if I can help it!”
Joan glanced at her quickly. She had caught the tone of pain in the beautiful voice, and softened to it with instant response.
“Yes, dear, of course. You’d never flirt, you’re too honest, but, all the same, Pixie, I stick to my opinion. I don’t believe for a moment that Stanor Vaughan is in love with you, and I’m positively sure that you are not in love with him!”
“Can you look into my heart, Esmeralda, and see what is there?”
“Yes, I can. In this instance I can. Fifty times better than you can yourself. You are pleased, you are flattered, you are interested. You were miserable and lonely, (that’s my fault, for leaving you alone. I don’t know what Bridgie will say to me!) and Stanor was sorry for you, you appealed to his chivalry, and you were just in the mood to be swept off your feet, without realising what it all meant. Pixie, when you told me just now, you were quite calm, you never even blushed!”
“I don’t think,” reflected Pixie thoughtfully, “I ever blushed in my life.”
It occurred to her uncomfortably that Stanor also had noticed the omission, and had felt himself defrauded thereby. She wondered uneasily if one could learn to blush!
As for Esmeralda, the words carried her back in a rush to the dear days of childhood, when the little sister had been the pet and pride of the family. Indeed, and Pixie had had no need to blush! Her very failings had been twisted round to pose as so many assets in her favour, while her own happy self-confidence had instilled the belief that every one wanted her, every one appreciated. What cause had Pixie O’Shaughnessy to blush?
“Mavourneen!” cried Esmeralda tenderly, “I know. Thank God you’ve never needed to blush or feel afraid, but, Pixie, when love comes, it’s different, everything is different! It’s a new birth. The old confidence goes, for it’s a new life that lies ahead, and one stands trembling on the brink. ... If what you feel is the right thing, you’ll understand. Pixie, dear, do I seem the wrong person to talk like this? You know how it has been with us. We drifted apart—Geoff and I—so far apart that I thought ... I can’t talk of it—you know what I thought—but, Pixie think! If the feeling between us had not been the real thing, if we had married on affection only, where should we have been now? Geoffrey loved me so much that he bore with me, through all these years of strain, and when this great trouble came, he forgave me at once, forgave everything, blotted it right out, and thought of nothing but how to help me most. A cloud had rolled up between us, but it was only a cloud, the love was there all the time, hidden, like the sun, ready to shine out again. ... Oh, Pixie, dear, the right thing is so wonderful, so grand, that I can’t let you miss it for the sake of a mistake. You are so young. You don’t understand. Let me write to Stanor to-night and tell him it’s a mistake, that you didn’t know your own mind!”