“Isn’t he nice, Geoff?”
“I have heard that he belongs to a good family, and feel that I have no right to say one word against him; still, where you are concerned, Gladys, I feel very jealous lest any ill should come to you,” he returned, earnestly.
“I think I could never again mistake him for you,” Gladys said, thoughtfully.
“What makes you think that?” was the eager query.
“There are certain expressions in your face that I do not find in his, and vice versa; while somehow a feeling of antagonism, a barrier, almost amounting to distrust, comes between us when I am with him. Perhaps it is because I do not know him as well as I know you; it would be natural to differently regard one who had always been like a brother,” Gladys replied, gravely.
A painful thrill shot through Geoffrey’s heart at those last words.
“Does she feel nothing but sisterly affection for me?” he thought; “and I love her—oh! not with a brother’s love; Heaven help me if I fail to win her by and by! She is dearer than my own life, and yet I dare not tell her so; I have no right to win the heart of the child of my benefactor until I can make a name and position worthy of her acceptance.”
But he allowed nothing of this conflict to appear. He changed the subject, and they chatted pleasantly of other matters until Mr. and Mrs. Huntress came to tell him that they were going home.
He then bade her good-night and good-by, and went away, loving her more fondly than ever, but with a heavy burden on his heart.