Lucy had recovered a little spirit during this last assault upon her. She had got to the lowest depth of humiliation, she thought, and rebounded. The emergency gave her a force that was not usual to her. “I once read a book like that,” she said; “a girl went away, because she thought another girl cared for the gentleman. Don’t you think that would be pleasant for the other girl? to think that she had made such an exhibition of herself, and that the gentleman had been cheated into caring for her? I— I am sure I never made any exhibition of myself,” Lucy cried, with rising warmth. “One is to me just like another. I am very willing to be friends if they will let me alone; but as for Philip! I am glad you like him,” she said, recovering her serenity with an effort. “I am very glad you are going to marry him. And, Katie!” here a sudden thought flashed into the mind of the heiress. If it, ever could be made to appear natural to give money a way, surely here was the occasion. She clapped her hands suddenly, with an unaffected simple pleasure, which was all the more delightful that it was a flower plucked, so to speak, from the very edge of a precipice. “They can not say anything against that,” she cried; “it will be only like a wedding present.” And satisfaction came back to Lucy’s heart.
“Oh, never mind about the wedding present—so long as you like it, Lucy—that is the best,” cried the other; and then Katie’s confidences took the more usual form. “Fancy, I have not seen him yet,” she said; “I got the letter only this morning, and I answered it, you know. Don’t you think a girl should give an answer straight off, and not keep him in suspense? for I had always, always, you know, from the very beginning, from that night when he came in—don’t you recollect? Now I see you never can have thought of Philip, Lucy, for you don’t recollect a bit! It was a beautiful letter; but it was a funny letter too. He said he could not help himself. Oh, I understand it quite well! Of course he did not want, if he could have helped it, to marry a girl without a penny in the world.”
“Does that matter, when he is fond of you?” Lucy said.
“Ah! it is only when you are awfully rich that you can afford to be so disinterested,” cried Katie. “Naturally, he did not want to marry a girl with nothing. And you may say what you like, Lucy; but for a man to have a chance of you and like me the best! There, I will never say another word; but if it makes me vain can I help it? To choose me when he had the chance of you!”
“He never had the chance of me,” cried Lucy, with returning indignation. “What do you all take me for, I wonder? Am I like something in a raffle in a bazaar? Can people take tickets for me, and draw numbers, and every one have a chance? It is not like a friend to say so. And there is no one, if you fail me, Katie, no one that I can trust.”
“You may trust me, to my very last breath,” cried Katie, with indescribable favor. And Lucy felt, with a softening sensation of relief and comfort, that surely here was a stronghold opening for her; Katie and Philip. She could trust in them if in nobody else. Philip had been the one honest among all the people round her. He had loved somebody else, he had not been able to pretend that it was Lucy he loved. She thought of the scene of the previous night with an uneasy mixture of pleasure and pain. How strange that they should all think so much of this money, which to Lucy conveyed so little comfort! But Philip had escaped the snare. And now she thought there could be no doubt that she had found a pair of friends whom she could trust.
Jock all this time waited down-stairs; but he was not impatient. Jane, the house-maid, charged with a sandwich which Mrs. Ford herself had prepared, waylaid him on the landing, and Jock wanted small persuading. He was a boy who liked sandwiches; and to have his own way, and that too, was enough to reconcile him to a little waiting. He had just time to dispose of it while the girls lingered; and it was very good, and he felt all the happier. He sallied forth a little in advance, as was his habit when Lucy was not alone, his little nose in the air, his head in the clouds. He did not pay any attention to the secrets the others were whispering; why should he? At eight the superiority of sex is as acutely felt as at any other age. Jock was loyal to his sister through every fiber of his little being; still Lucy was only a girl when all was said.
It was a beautiful day after the yesterday’s rain. The blue of the sky had a certain sharpness, as skies are apt to have when they have wept much; but the air was light and soft, relieved of its burden of moisture. It was Katie who was the directress of the little party, though the others were not aware of it. She led them through the streets till they reached a little ornamental park into which the High Street fell at one end. Then suddenly in a moment, Katie gave her friend’s arm a sudden pressure. “Oh, Lucy,” she cried, “have a little feeling for him: you have so much for me, have a little for him,” and disengaging herself, she ran on and seized Jock’s hand, who was marching serenely in front. Lucy, astonished, paused for a moment, not knowing how to understand this sudden desertion, and found her hand in the hand of Bertie Russell, who had appeared she could not tell from whence.
“This is good fortune indeed,” he said; “what a happy chance for me that you should take your walk here!”
Lucy felt her heart flutter like a bird fallen into a snare. It was not that she was frightened for Bertie Russell, but it was that she had been betrayed in the very tenderness of her trust. “Katie brought us,” she said gravely. Katie, who was stimulating Jock to a race, had got almost out of hearing, and the other two were left significantly alone. Lucy felt her heart sink; was there another scene like that of yesterday to be gone through again?