Part 27 (1/2)
”You can say what you like with regard to Florence Aylmer, but you must not mention one fact.”
”What is that?”
”That I happen to know her.”
”What do you mean?”
”I do not choose to say what I mean. I trust to your honour not to injure a woman quite as dependent and quite as penniless as Florence Aylmer. I have secured this place, and I wish to stay here. If you are mad, I am sane. I ask you not to mention to Mrs. Aylmer that I know Florence; otherwise, you must go your own gait.”
”I will, of course, respect your confidence, but I do not understand you.”
”Some day you will, and also what a great fool you are making of yourself,” was Bertha's next remark.
She sailed past him out of the room and up to her own bed-room.
CHAPTER XXV.
TREVOR'S RESOLVE.
If Trevor had a fault it was obstinacy. He stayed awake for a short time, but finally dropped asleep, having made up his mind, of course, not to injure Bertha Keys, whom he could not understand in the least, but to have, as he expressed it, a sober talk with Mrs. Aylmer. He saw that Bertha, for reasons of her own, was very much against this course, and he resolved to keep out of her way. He rose early and went for a long ride before breakfast. He did not return until he knew Bertha would be busy over household matters, and Mrs. Aylmer would in all probability be alone in her private sitting-room.
He tapped at her door between eleven and twelve o'clock, and at her summons entered and closed it behind him.
”Ah, Maurice, that is good,” said the lady; ”come and sit near me. I am quite prepared to have a long chat with you.”
”And I want to have a long talk with you, Mrs. Aylmer,” was his answer.
He drew a chair forward, and sat where he could see right out over the landscape.
”It is a beautiful day,” said the lady.
”Yes,” he replied.
”Maurice,” she said, after a pause, ”you must know that I am very much attached to you.”
”You have always been extremely good to me,” he answered.
”I am attached to you; it is easy to be good to those one loves. I have never had a child of my own; you stand to me in the place of a son.”
”But in reality I am not related to you,” he answered.
She frowned slightly.
”There are relations of the heart,” she said then. ”You have touched my heart. There is nothing I would not do for you.”
Again he said: ”You are very kind.”
She was silent for half a minute, then she proceeded: ”You are my heir.”
He fidgeted.