Part 45 (2/2)
”At the time you spoke to me I could not go, but now I really should be glad to accompany you. Will you take me?”
”No, Salome.”
”Your reason, Dr. Grey?”
”Is one whose utterance would pain you, consequently I trust you will pardon me for withholding it.”
”At my own peril, I demand it.”
”The motive which prompts your offer precludes the possibility of my acceptance.”
”How dare you sit in judgment on my motives? You who prate and homilize of charity! charity! and who quote the 'golden rule' solely for the edification and guidance of those around you. Example is more potent than precept, and we are creatures of imitation. Suppose I should question the disinterestedness of your motives in allowing one patient to monopolize your attention to the detriment of the remainder? Of course you would be shocked and think me presumptuous, for one's sins and follies often play hide and seek, and sometimes we insult our own pet fault when we find it housed in some other piece of flesh.”
”Good night, Salome. I shall endeavor to forget all this, since I am too sincerely your friend to desire to set your hasty words in the storehouse of memory.”
He looked down pityingly, sorrowfully, into her angry imperious eyes, and sudden shame smote her, making her cheeks glow and tingle as if from the stroke of an open hand.
”Dr. Grey, wait one moment! Let me say something, that will show,--that will--”
”Only make matters worse. No, Salome, I have little time for trifling, still less for recrimination, none at all for dissimulation; and, in your present mood, the least we can say will prove the most powerful for good.”
He went down to his buggy, but stopped and reflected; and fearing that he might have been too harsh, he turned and approached her, as she stood leaning against one of the columns of the gallery.
”Do not think me rude. I am not less your friend than formerly, though I am anxious, and doubtless appear preoccupied. Let us shake hands in peace.”
He extended his own, but the girl stood motionless, and the remorseful anguish and humiliation of her uplifted face touched his heart.
”Dr. Grey, if you really forgive and forget, prove it by taking me to 'Solitude.'”
”Do not ask what you well know I have quite determined it is best that I should not grant.”
The spark leaped up lurid as ever, in her dilating eyes.
”You take this method to punish me for my refusal to comply with your wishes a fortnight since?”
”I have neither the right nor inclination to punish you in any respect, and you must pardon my inability to accede to a request which my judgment does not approve. Good-by.”
He put his hand into his pocket, and left her; and while she stood irresolute and disappointed, a servant summoned her to Miss Jane's presence.
”Can I do anything for you?” asked the orphan, observing the cloud on the old lady's brow.
”Yes, dear; sit down here and talk to me. I feel lonely, now that Ulpian is away so constantly. He seems very uneasy about that woman at 'Solitude,' and I never saw him manifest so much anxiety about any one. By the by, Salome, tell me something concerning her.”
”I have already told you all I know of her.”
”Wherein consists her attractiveness?”
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