"Perhaps it is as well, dear, that there is one person in the world I can open my heart to. I should never have had courage to name him as you have done. It is a comfort to know how my boy loves his sister, and feels for and with her. These last two months have been very dreadful, Rory, but I am better, now it is really all over. He could not help it; Jeannie is so pretty and winning, and I am like a country sparrow by the side of—what bird shall I say, Rory?—a bird of paradise, compared with her in all her plumage."
"Fine feathers make fine birds. She is not fit to tie your shoe," growled Rory.
"Never mind. I have a dear friend in you as well as a brother, a friend whom I can trust at all times. And though we will not talk of it, we shall know there is one secret just between us two that will not be breathed to anyone else in the world."
The thought of Norah's confidence in him, above all others, soothed Rory. They sealed the compact with a kiss, and Jack Corry's conduct was named no more between them, though neither forgot it or was likely to do so.
For a month after his engagement to Jeannie was made public, Norah met the two from time to time, and could not help noticing that whilst Jack's devotion increased, his fiancée seemed rather to tolerate than appreciate it. Then came the conversation between the two girls, in which Jeannie alluded to the probability of her having to leave home again by the doctor's orders, and Norah heard the careless words that have been already recorded: the wish to stay at Benvora in peace or to be able to take away with her, father, mother, 'Jet' the pony, Norah herself, any person, anything but Jack Curry.
It was hard to think she could be in earnest when she said, "The one sweet drop in my cup of banishment is the thought that I shall leave Jack Corry behind me. He bores me to death."
Could it be possible that after all the affection was one-sided, that Jeannie had entered upon the engagement without any real love for Jack, and only as a means of amusing herself and occupying her idle hours?
"You ought not to speak of Jack in such a way," said Norah. "If I were a mischief-maker, and were to repeat words which you do not mean, but which would grieve him terribly, what then?"
"I shall say what I like. I mean every word I do say. You are not a mischief-maker, and would not make mischief to save your own life; but if you were to repeat what you consider my naughty speech to Jack, he would not believe me in earnest—more's the pity. I have told him the same thing myself a score of times. He will not be driven away. So you see, dear there is no alternative but for me to leave him."
"You cannot be in earnest, Jeannie. You would never think of treating Jack in such a manner, when you know how he cares for you, and looks on the engagement between you as the most solemn that can be entered into."