“O, Sue!” cried Tessa, wearily. “And he loved you so.”
“Gerald! Of course he did! But that’s all past and gone! He can’t expect me never to have any good times, can he? He didn’t leave me any money to have a good time with! I’m too young to shut myself up and think of his grave all the time. You and father are the most unreasonable people I ever saw! Why, he thinks because he thinks of mother every day, and wouldn’t be married for any thing, that I must be that kind of a mourner, too! It’s very hard; nobody ever had so much trouble as I do. I never used to like John Gesner, but you don’t know how interesting he can be. He took off my wedding ring one day and said it didn’t fit. It always was a little too large. Gerald said that I would grow into it,” she said, slipping it up and down on her finger and letting it drop on the grass.
“There!” with a little laugh as she stooped to look for it, “suppose I could never find it. Is that what you call an omen, Tessa? Help me look!”
“No, let it be. Let it be buried, too.”
“There! I have found it. You needn’t be so cross to me. I wonder why you are cross to me. Gerald Raid once that you would be a good friend to me forever.”
“I will, Susie,” said Tessa, fervently.
“You always liked Gerald. What did you like him for?” asked Sue, curiously.
As the answer was not forthcoming, Sue started off on a new branch of the old topic. “Mr. John Gesner is going to Europe this fall, or in the winter; he is going on business, but he says that if he had a wife to go around with him that he would stay a year or two. Wouldn’t that be grand? Nan Gerard will have to be home when the Seminary opens, anyway. It would be grand to travel for two years.”
“Why does not Miss Gesner go with him?”
“Oh, she wouldn’t leave Lewis. Lewis and Blossom Hill are her two idols. Mr. John says that if he were married, he would build a new house right opposite, and he asked me as we passed the grand houses which style I liked best. There was one with porticoes and columns, I chose that. He said that it could be built while he was away, and be all ready for him to bring his bride home to. But you are not listening; you never think of what I am saying,” Sue said, in a grumbling, tearful voice. “My friends are forever misunderstanding me. Gerald never misunderstood me. What do you think Dr. Towne said to me? He said that when I am old, I shall love Gerald better than any one; that what comes between will fall out and leave that time. Won’t it be queer? He said that women ought to think love the best thing in the world. I cried while he was talking. I can love any body that is kind to me. When I told John Gesner that, he said, ‘I will always be kind to you.’ But you are not listening; I verily believe that you care more for that squirrel than you do for me!”