"You must lie down on my bed; I will not talk to you like this," she said, firmly. And when Langley, faint and exhausted with emotion, offered no resistance, she fetched a thick shawl and folded it round her, and then lighted a candle and administered some sal-volatile. The dim light showed a very ghastly face, and great bright eyes brimful of wretchedness; the somewhat thin lips were trembling with weakness.
"Don't look at me, Queenie; don't let me talk. I am not myself to-night; I shall say things I ought not to say." But Queenie only kissed her tenderly, and drew the white face down to her shoulder.
"Do talk, Langley; it will do you good. You have kept it all in too long, and it has done you harm. No one wants me, and I can sit beside you a little. When I hear the least movement in Emmie's room I will go in."
"We ought not to leave him long alone," she answered, faintly. "Garth must go in to him presently. He would mind me, I know; but I dare not let him see me like this. Oh, Queenie, whatever sorrow you may have to bear, may you never know mine—to bring trouble on the man you love, and then not to be able to comfort him!"
Queenie stroked her hair softly; there was sympathy conveyed in every touch. "Tell me all about it, Langley," she whispered; "I always knew you had a grief. If you loved Mr. Chester, and he cared for you, why did you not marry him?"
"Why, indeed! I have had five years in which to ask myself that question. I loved him, of course. We had grown up together; as long as I could remember, Harry and I had been together caring for each other. Garth, every one, expected how it would be."
"Perhaps they all took it too much as a matter of course."
"How did you know that?" lifting her head from Queenie's shoulder. "No one can have told you. I never had any confidant."
"One guesses things by instinct sometimes."
"You are young to know human nature so well," sinking back with a sigh. "Ah, six years ago I was like Cathy—proud, impulsive, and loving my own will. I had a great notion of independence. I thought women were not allowed enough liberty, that they held themselves too cheaply; and though I loved Harry, I was not quite willing to marry him."