Part 24 (2/2)
”I'm afraid you ask too much,” she said at last. ”If you like, you may think I am not brave enough.” She raised her eyes to his; and winced at the pain she saw there. But she went on bravely: ”Had things been different, I might perhaps have married you, but I think our ways are separate. And now you must let me go, and not speak of this again.”
He bowed, and it struck Beatrice that there was a great dignity in his bearing.
”Very well,” he answered gravely. ”I will not trouble you again unless, in one way or another, you give me permission.”
She turned away, and he stood still until long after she and the dog had disappeared in the bluff. Then he roused himself with a laugh.
”I won't get her this way!” he said half aloud, and picked up some of the fittings of the pump.
Beatrice went straight to her mother, for there was strong confidence between the two.
”So you refused him!” Mrs. Mowbray said, after listening silently while Beatrice was telling her of the interview. ”Did you find it hard?”
”Yes,” she answered slowly; ”harder than I thought. But it was the only way.”
”If you felt that, dear, it certainly was so.”
Beatrice looked up in surprise, but her mother's face was quietly thoughtful.
”You can't mean that I did not do right?”
”No; there's a heavy penalty for leaving the circle you were born in and breaking caste. It would have hurt me to see you suffer as you must have done. Only the very brave can take that risk.”
The girl was puzzled. Her mother agreed with her, and yet she had faintly reflected Harding's ideas.
”Well,” Beatrice said, ”I shrink from telling Father.”
”I'm not sure that he need know. It would disturb him, and he might do something that we should regret. On the whole, I think you had better visit our friends in Toronto as you were asked. They would be glad to have you for the summer.”
”Do you wish me to run away?” Beatrice asked in surprise.
”It might be better for both. Harding is not one of us, but I think he feels things deeply, and his is a stubborn nature. In a sense, it is your duty to make it as easy as you can for him.”
Beatrice looked at her mother curiously.
”You seem more concerned about Mr. Harding than I expected.”
”He gave your brother his coat in the blizzard and saved his life,” Mrs.
Mowbray answered. ”That counts for something.”
The girl hesitated a moment.
”Well, I'll go to Toronto,” she promised.
CHAPTER XIV
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