Part 18 (1/2)

Mr. Brand remained staring; he was even a little pale, as if he had been frightened. ”I don't think you know what you are saying!” he exclaimed.

”Perhaps not. Perhaps I am talking nonsense. But it is only with you that I talk nonsense. I never do so with my cousin.”

”I will speak to you again, when you are less excited,” said Mr. Brand.

”I am always excited when you speak to me. I must tell you that--even if it prevents you altogether, in future. Your speaking to me irritates me.

With my cousin it is very different. That seems quiet and natural.”

He looked at her, and then he looked away, with a kind of helpless distress, at the dusky garden and the faint summer stars. After which, suddenly turning back, ”Gertrude, Gertrude!” he softly groaned. ”Am I really losing you?”

She was touched--she was pained; but it had already occurred to her that she might do something better than say so. It would not have alleviated her companion's distress to perceive, just then, whence she had sympathetically borrowed this ingenuity. ”I am not sorry for you,”

Gertrude said; ”for in paying so much attention to me you are following a shadow--you are wasting something precious. There is something else you might have that you don't look at--something better than I am. That is a reality!” And then, with intention, she looked at him and tried to smile a little. He thought this smile of hers very strange; but she turned away and left him.

She wandered about alone in the garden wondering what Mr. Brand would make of her words, which it had been a singular pleasure for her to utter. Shortly after, pa.s.sing in front of the house, she saw at a distance two persons standing near the garden gate. It was Mr. Brand going away and bidding good-night to Charlotte, who had walked down with him from the house. Gertrude saw that the parting was prolonged. Then she turned her back upon it. She had not gone very far, however, when she heard her sister slowly following her. She neither turned round nor waited for her; she knew what Charlotte was going to say. Charlotte, who at last overtook her, in fact presently began; she had pa.s.sed her arm into Gertrude's.

”Will you listen to me, dear, if I say something very particular?”

”I know what you are going to say,” said Gertrude. ”Mr. Brand feels very badly.”

”Oh, Gertrude, how can you treat him so?” Charlotte demanded. And as her sister made no answer she added, ”After all he has done for you!”

”What has he done for me?”

”I wonder you can ask, Gertrude. He has helped you so. You told me so yourself, a great many times. You told me that he helped you to struggle with your--your peculiarities. You told me that he had taught you how to govern your temper.”

For a moment Gertrude said nothing. Then, ”Was my temper very bad?” she asked.

”I am not accusing you, Gertrude,” said Charlotte.

”What are you doing, then?” her sister demanded, with a short laugh.

”I am pleading for Mr. Brand--reminding you of all you owe him.”

”I have given it all back,” said Gertrude, still with her little laugh.

”He can take back the virtue he imparted! I want to be wicked again.”

Her sister made her stop in the path, and fixed upon her, in the darkness, a sweet, reproachful gaze. ”If you talk this way I shall almost believe it. Think of all we owe Mr. Brand. Think of how he has always expected something of you. Think how much he has been to us.

Think of his beautiful influence upon Clifford.”

”He is very good,” said Gertrude, looking at her sister. ”I know he is very good. But he should n't speak against Felix.”

”Felix is good,” Charlotte answered, softly but promptly. ”Felix is very wonderful. Only he is so different. Mr. Brand is much nearer to us. I should never think of going to Felix with a trouble--with a question.

Mr. Brand is much more to us, Gertrude.”

”He is very--very good,” Gertrude repeated. ”He is more to you; yes, much more. Charlotte,” she added suddenly, ”you are in love with him!”

”Oh, Gertrude!” cried poor Charlotte; and her sister saw her blus.h.i.+ng in the darkness.

Gertrude put her arm round her. ”I wish he would marry you!” she went on.

Charlotte shook herself free. ”You must not say such things!” she exclaimed, beneath her breath.