"Great discontents there are, and many murmurs."
"There is a kind of mournful eloquence
In thy dumb grief."
Lady Baltimore, too, had been very pleased by the news when Felix told
her next morning of his good luck. In all her own great unhappiness she
had still a kindly word and thought for her cousin and his fiancée.
"One of the nicest girls," she says, pressing his hands warmly. "I often
think, indeed, the nicest girl I know. You are fortunate, Felix,
but"--very kindly--"she is fortunate, too."
"Oh, no, the luck is all on my side," says he.
"It will be a blow to Norman," she says, presently.
"I think not," with an irrepressible touch of scorn. "There is Miss
Maliphant."
"You mean that he can decline upon her. Of course I can quite understand
that you do not like him," says she with a quick sigh. "But, believe me,
any heart he has was really given to Joyce. Well, he must devote himself
to ambition now."
"Miss Maliphant can help him to that."
"No, no. That is all knocked on the head. It appears--this is in strict
confidence, Felix--but it appears he asked her to marry him last
evening, and she refused."
Felix turns to her as if to give utterance to some vehement words, and
then checks himself. After all, why add to her unhappiness? Why tell her
of that cur's baseness? Her own brother, too! It would be but another
grief to her.
To think he should have gone from her to Miss Maliphant! What a pitiful
creature! Beneath contempt! Well, if his pride survives those two
downfalls--both in one day--it must be made of leather. It does Felix
good to think of how Miss Maliphant must have worded her refusal. She is
not famous for grace of speech. He must have had a real bad time of it.
Of course, Joyce had told him of her interview with the sturdy heiress.
"Ah, she refused?" says he hardly knowing what to say.
"Yes; and not very graciously, I'm afraid. He gave me the mere fact of
the refusal--no more, and only that because he had to give a reason for
his abrupt departure. You know he is going this evening?"
"No, I did not know it. Of course, under the circumstances----"
"Yes, he could hardly stay here. Margaret came to me and said she would
go, but I would not allow that. After all, every woman has a right to
refuse or accept as she will."
"True." His heart gives an exultant leap as he remembers how his love
had willed.
"I only wish she had not hurt him in the refusal. But I could see he was
wounded. He was not in his usual careless spirits. He struck me as being
a little--well, you know, a little----" She hesitates.
"Out of temper," suggests Felix involuntarily.
"Well, yes. Disappointment takes that course with some people. After
all, it might have been worse if he had set his heart on Joyce and been
refused."
"Much worse," says Felix, his eyes on the ground.
"She would have been a severe loss."
"Severe, indeed." By this time Felix is beginning to feel like an
advanced hypocrite.
"As for Margaret Maliphant, I am afraid he was more concerned about the
loss of her bonds and scrips than of herself. It is a terrible world,
Felix, when all is told," says she, suddenly crossing her beautiful long
white hands over her knees, and leaning toward him. There is a touch of
misery so sharp in her voice that he starts as he looks at her. It is a
momentary fit of emotion, however, and passes before he dare comment on
it. With a heart nigh to breaking she still retains her composure and
talks calmly to Felix, and lets him talk to her, as though the fact that
she is soon to lose forever the man who once had gained her heart--that
fatal "once" that means for always, in spite of everything that has come
and gone--is as little or nothing to her. Seeing her sitting there,
strangely pale indeed, but so collected, it would be impossible to guess
at the tempest of passion and grief and terror that reigns within her
breast. Women are not so strong to bear as men, and therefore in the
world's storms suffer most.
"It is a lovely world," says he smiling, thinking of Joyce, and then,
remembering her sad lot, his smile fades. "One might make--perhaps--a
bad world--better," he says, stammering.
"Ah! teach me how," says she with a melancholy glance.
"There is such a thing as forgiveness. Forgive him!" blurts he out in a
frightened sort of way. He is horrified, at himself--at his own
temerity--a second later, and rises to his feet as if to meet the
indignation he has certainly courted. But to his surprise no such
indignation betrays itself.
"Is that your advice?" says she, still with the thin white hands clasped
over the knee, and the earnest gaze on him. "Well, well, well!"
Her eyes droop. She seems to be thinking, and he, gazing at her,
refrains from speech with his heart sad with pity. Presently she lifts
her head and looks at him.
"There! Go back to your love," she says with a glance that thrills him.
"Tell her from me that if you had the whole world to choose from, I
should still select her as your wife. I like her; I love her! There,
go!" She seems to grow all at once very tired. Are those tears that are
rising in her eyes? She holds out to him her hand.
Felix, taking it, holds it closely for a moment, and presently, as if
moved to do it, he stoops and presses a warm kiss upon it.
She is so unhappy, and so kind, and so true. God deliver her out of her
sorrow!