“Yes, yes; go on,” the poor girl said, eagerly, though every word was fresh torture to her.
“He says he cannot live longer away from you, Editha; it is killing him, and he must come where he can see you once in awhile. He writes, ‘Ask her if I may. I will say nothing that shall wound her. I will be firm and strong; but, oh! I am so homesick for a look into her eyes, for a clasp of her hand. Ask her, Paul, if I may come.’”
“No, no, NO!” burst in a low, frightened tone from the girl’s lips. “He must not come. Write to him instantly and tell him so. Mr. Tressalia, I could not bear that of all things in the world. I will not see him. He must not come. I will hide from him. Oh! why must I suffer so?”
The words ended in a low, heart-broken sob. She had clasped both hands convulsively around her companion’s arm in her excitement, and was now shivering and trembling so that he was greatly alarmed.
The brightness and exceeding beauty that had been hers when he first saw her had only been the result of a momentary excitement after all.
He had flattered himself that she was really better and stronger, both in body and spirit, but now he saw that her poor heart was just as sore and wounded as ever, and that her fatal love was still eating at her vitals.
Earle, he knew from the letter he had so lately received, was suffering in the same way, and what these poor tried ones were to do all their future was a sore trouble to him.
“Be calm, dear child,” he said, in low, quiet tones. “Earle shall do just as you wish. Come and walk with me until your nerves are a little more steady.”
He unclasped those locked fingers from his arm, and drawing one hand within it, led her away into a retired path, and talked gravely of other things, until he saw the wild look fade from her eyes, the hand on his arm grow quiet, and knew that her intense excitement was gradually subsiding.
But it hurt him deeply to hear every few minutes a deep, shuddering, sobbing sigh come from her pale lips—something as a child breathes after it has exhausted itself with weeping and fallen asleep.