"For Julia!" I repeated, the treacherous vision fading away
instantaneously. "Oh, yes! I understand. They are very beautiful--very
beautiful indeed."
"Which do you like most?" asked Julia, in a whisper, as she leaned
against my shoulder.
"I like them all," I said. "There is scarcely any difference among them
that I can see."
"No difference!" she exclaimed. "That is so like a man! Why, they are as
different as can be. Look here, this one is only five shillings a yard,
and that is twelve. Isn't that a difference?"
"A very great one," I replied. "But do you think you will look well in
white, my dear Julia? You never do wear white."
"A bride cannot wear any thing but white," she said, angrily. "I
declare, Martin, you would not mind if I looked a perfect fright."
"But I should mind very much," I urged, putting my arm around her; "for
you will be my wife then, Julia."
She smiled almost for the first time that afternoon, for her mind had
been full of the furniture, and too burdened for happiness. But now she
looked happy.
"You can be as nice and good as any one, when you like," she said,
gently.
"I shall always be nice and good when we are married," I answered, with
a laugh. "You are not afraid of venturing, are you, Julia?"
"Not the least in the world," she said. "I know you, Martin, and I can
trust you implicitly."
My heart ached at the words, so softly and warmly spoken. But I laughed
again--at myself this time, not at her. Why should she not trust me? I
would be as true as steel to her. I loved no one better, and I would
take care not to love any one. My word, my honor, my troth, were all
plighted to her. Only a scoundrel and a fool would be unfaithful to an
engagement like ours.
We walked home together, we three, all contented and all happy. We had a
good deal to talk of during the evening, and sat up late. Sundry small
events had happened in Guernsey during my six-days' absence, and these
were discussed with that charming minuteness with which women canvass
family matters. It was midnight before I found myself alone in my own
room.
I had half forgotten the crumpled paper in my waistcoat-pocket, but now
I smoothed it out before me and pondered over every word. No, there
could not be a doubt that it referred to Miss Ollivier. "Bright-brown
hair, gray eyes, and delicate features." That exactly corresponded with
her appearance. "Blue-silk dress, and seal-skin jacket and hat." It was
precisely the dress which Tardif had described. "Fifty pounds reward."
That was a large sum to offer, and the inference was that her friends
were persons of good means, and anxious for her recovery.
Why should she have strayed from home? That was the question. What
possible reason could there have been, strong enough to impel a young
and delicately-nurtured girl to run all the risks and dangers of a
flight alone and unprotected? Her friends evidently believed that she
had not been run away with; there was not the ordinary element of an
elopement in this case.
But Miss Ollivier had assured me she had no friends. What did she mean
by the word? Here were persons evidently anxious to discover her place
of concealment. Were they friends? or could they by any chance be
enemies? This is not an age when enmity is very rampant. For my own
part, I had not an enemy in the world. Why should this pretty,
habitually-obedient, self-controlled girl have any? Most probably it was
one of those instances of bitter misunderstanding which sometimes arise
in families, and which had driven her to the desperate step of seeking
peace and quietness by flight.
Then what ought I to do with this advertisement, thrust, as it would
seem, purposely under my notice? If I had not wrapped up the parcel
myself at Barbet's, I should have missed seeing it; or if Barbet had
picked up any other piece of paper, it would not have come under my eye.
A curious concatenation of very trivial circumstances had ended in
putting into my hands a clew by which I could unravel all the mystery
about my Sark patient. What was I to do with the clew?
I might communicate at once with Messrs. Scott and Brown, giving them
the information they had advertised for six months before, and receive a
reply, stating that it was no longer valuable to them, or containing an
acknowledgment of my claim to the fifty pounds reward. I might sell my
knowledge of Miss Ollivier for fifty pounds. In doing so I might render
her a great service, by restoring her to her proper sphere in society.
But the recollection of Tardif's description of her as looking terrified
and hunted recurred vividly to me. The advertisement put her age as
twenty-one. I should not have judged her so old myself, especially since
her hair had been cut short. But if she was twenty-one, she was old
enough to form plans and purposes for herself, and to choose, as far as
she could, her own mode of living. I was not prepared to deliver her up,
until I knew something more of both sides of the question.
Settled--that if I could see Messrs. Scot and Brown, and learn something
about Miss Ollivier's friends, I might be then able to decide whether I
would betray her to them but I would not write. Also, that I must see
her again first, and once more urge her to have confidence in me. If she
would trust me with her secret, I would be as true to her as a friend as
I meant to be true to Julia.
Having come to these conclusions, I cut the advertisement carefully out
of the crumpled paper, and placed it in my pocket-book with portraits of
my mother and Julia, Here were mementos of the three women I cared most
for in the world: my mother first, Julia second, and my mysterious
patient third.