There was no sign of shrinking or timidity in Norah then, as she stood at her full height, looking down, both physically and morally, on the fair form which held so small and selfish a nature. At sight of her, Jeannie flushed, paled, trembled, and then stammered out, "Surely you are not angry at my little joke!"
"Joke!" said Norah. "Do you call it a jest to trifle with the purest, holiest feelings that God has given us the power to entertain one towards another? Is it a jest to bring a man to your feet, to induce him to lay bare his heart, to offer you his affection, to devote all that is best in him, and all that he has to your service, and then to mock him? Mock him, did I say? To wound him cruelly, to take the courage, the joy, hope, sunshine, out of his life—and for what? Not because you valued the priceless gift he had to offer, or that you wanted it. But you did want the paltry satisfaction of showing your power over this man, of being the envied of many, because everyone liked him; of using him in order to make your idle hours pass more quickly; of preventing any other girl from possessing the honest love which many would have prized, though you did not know its value. As to your whispered insult to myself, I have no answer for such words; they are too contemptible. We are not likely soon to meet again, but, as my farewell words, let me say: Think, Jeannie, before you decide to spoil Jack Corry's life, or your own may be saddened by bitter memories that you will never be able to banish while it lasts."
Norah waited for no reply, but almost fled from Jeannie's presence, and hurried homeward, to relieve her outraged feelings in the quiet of her own room.
A smaller nature might have rejoiced that Jack was likely to be doubly repaid for the pain he had caused herself. But Norah's was not a small soul, and she could distinguish the difference between Jack's conduct in yielding to temptation, and Jeannie's actual treachery. Like the high souled girl she was, Norah would have saved Jack from suffering, even at the cost of bearing herself a double burden, though she sighed as the thought came, "Poor Jack! Jeannie could not make him truly happy."
As to Jeannie, she was frightened and angry by turns as she recalled Norah's searching words and reproof, but not sorry.
She tossed her pretty head, and said to herself, "What right had she to take me to task? It is just her jealousy, because Jack left her for me. She shall not have a chance of rating at me again. She may think what she likes; I do not care."
The spirit of the spoiled child, the heiress, and the successful flirt, rose to the occasion. Jeannie decided that after all she had the best of it, and she smiled at the idea of a coming triumph.
The doctor had decreed that she must go away for a month. Jeannie resolved that many months should pass before she returned to Benvora, and took means to hasten her departure—a thing she well knew how to manage.
Needless to say, there was no farewell between her and Norah Guiness; but in parting with Jack Corry she made her feelings sufficiently plain.
How it all came about the gossips never knew, but first there was a whisper about a broken engagement, and then the report was boldly spread that Jack Corry had been summarily dismissed by his fickle little fiancée, who was off to foreign parts again.