Part 17 (1/2)
Isabel flushed up, and Laura stared at her, wondering whether this was the placid, gentle girl who to say?” cried Isabel, angrily ”He is your brother, and if all the world is turning against him, is it not your duty to defend--to try and find excuses for his conduct?”
”Isabel!”
”Well, I ainst hi between us is at an end I hate hied et the past, and would not be nant and cruel too”
Laura took the hand that was resigned to her, and the pair sat in silence for some minutes
Isabel's lips moved several times, as if she were about to speak, but no words came, till, with a desperate effort, she said in a husky whisper--
”Have you seen her, Laura?”
”I? No!” cried the girl, as startled by the question
”But you know she is beautiful, and rich, and aristocratic?”
”I only knohat aunt has said, dear; but if she were the most beautiful wo you as he did”
”I don't know,” said Isabel, sadly ”He is wise and clever, while I have often felt that it was more than I could expect for a man like him to care for ht to have been only too proud to have won such a girl,” cried Laura, sharply, but her visitor shook her head
”It was only a brief fancy of his, dear, and as soon as the right woot me Well, I am patient if I am not proud, for I cannot resent it, dear, only try to bear it, for I loved him very dearly; but it is very hard for the little roht to an end”
”It was cruel--cruel in the extrerily ”I would not have believed that my brother, whom I almost worshi+pped, could have behaved so ill”
”These things are a ently; ”and perhaps it is better that it should have happened now than later on ere married But tellhis patients again? You wrote to ”
”So he is, nearly everything, now Bel dear, I will not be so hard upon hiht, that he cannot help himself, or he would never have behaved so ill Heto her with a startled look in her eyes
”It is the only way in which I can account for the change,” continued Laura, ”for I will not believe what Aunt Grace says, that all men are bad at heart If they are, wohtly
”Tell me about what he does now”
”I can't, dear,” cried Laura, piteously ”I seeoes out soon after breakfast, and does not come back till dinner-ti about the streets for hours”
Isabel sighed
”I've tried--oh, how I've tried!--to win his confidence; but he says nothing, only turns away, and goes out It is just as if he had lost sorows e”
”Then he is ill--mentally ill,” cried Isabel, excitedly ”I knew that there e behaviour Laura dear, iven me from the first It is all so directly opposed to his nature and character I will not believe that he could be so false to everything that he has said to ain, and Isabel's careworn face flushed once more
”You are not sisterly and true,” she cried ”The world is censorious enough without those who are nearest and dearest to us turning away and beco our eneently