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Page 20
"Helen!" exclaimed Rose suddenly; "Helen!--if what you have now said
is really true, you have only told me half the truth. Helen Marsh, you
have seen some one you like better than Edward Lynne."
"No!" was Helen's prompt reply, for she would not condescend to a
falsehood--her own pride was a sufficient barrier against that.
"No, Rose, I have not seen any one I like better than Edward. But,
Rose"--She buried her face in her hands, and as suddenly withdrew
them, and shaking back her luxuriant ringlets, while a bright
triumphant colour mounted to her cheeks, added--"There is no reason
_why_ I should be ashamed. I saw, last week, at Mrs. Howard's, one
whom I would rather marry."
"I always thought," murmured Rose, weeping in the fulness of her
generous nature, as the idea of Edward's future misery came upon
her--"I always thought no good would come of your visiting a lady so
much above us." It would be impossible to describe the contemptuous
expression of Helen's finely moulded features, while she repeated, as
if to herself, "Above _us_!--above _me_!" And then she added aloud,
and with what seemed to Rose a forced expression of joy, "But good
_will_ come of it, Rose--good will surely come of it; never fear but
it will--it _must_. And when I am a great lady, Rosey, who but you,
sweet cousin, will be next my heart?"
"I am satisfied to be _near_, even without being _next_ it, Helen,"
she replied mournfully; "but why have you kept this matter concealed
from me so long? Why have you"--
"Found!" interrupted a well-known voice; and at the same moment Edward
Lynne shook a shower of perfumed hawthorn blossoms from the scattered
hedge which he struggled through; and repeating "Found!" in his full
echoing voice, stood panting before the startled girls. "I have had
such a hunt!" he exclaimed joyfully--"such a hunt for you, Helen! I
have been over Woodland brook, and up as far as Fairmill, where you
said you would be--oh, you truant! And I doubt if I should have caught
you at last, but for poor Dash"--and the sagacious dog sprung about,
as if conscious that he deserved a large portion of the praise. Rose
was astonished at the perfect self-possession with which, after the
first flush of surprise, Helen received her lover. Nor was poor Rose
unconscious that she herself occupied no portion of his attention
beyond the glance of recognition which he cast while throwing himself
on the sward at Helen's feet.
"We must go home," said the triumphant beauty, after hearing a few of
those half-whispered nothings which are considered of such importance
in a lover's calendar; "the dew is falling, and I may catch cold."
"The dew falling!" repeated Edward.--"Why, look, the sky is still
golden from the sun's rays; do not--do not, dearest Helen, go home
yet. Besides," he added, "your grandmother has plenty of employment;
there is Mrs. Howard's companion, and one or two strangers from the
hall, at your cottage--so she is not at all lonesome."
"Who did you say?" inquired Helen, eagerly, now really losing her
self-command.
"Oh, some of Mrs. Howard's fine friends. I never," he continued, "see
those sort of people in an humble village, without thinking of the
story of the agitation of all the little hedgerow birds, when they
first saw a paroquet amongst them, and began longing for his gay
feathers. Do not go, dear Helen--they will soon be gone; and I do so
want you to walk as far as Fairmill Lawn. I have planted with my own
hands this morning the silver firs you said you admired, just where
the bank juts over the stream. Do come."
"Rose will go, and tell me all about it, but _I_ must get home. Granny
cannot do without me; besides, Mrs. Howard is so kind to me, that I
cannot suffer _her_ friends to be neglected. Nay, Edward, you may look
as you please, but I certainly _shall_ go." Edward Lynne remonstrated,
implored, and, finally, flew into a passion. At any other time Helen's
proud spirit would have risen so as to meet this outburst of temper
with one to the full as violent; but the knowledge of what had grown
to maturity in her own mind, and the presence of Rose, restrained her,
and she continued to walk home without reply.
"And I shall go also," he said, bitterly, "but not with you." Even at
that moment Helen Marsh exulted in her own mind to find his words and
his steps at variance; he was still by her side. The most perilous of
all triumphs is the knowledge of possessing power over the affections
of our fellow creatures; it is so especially intoxicating to women as
to be greatly dangerous, and those who do not abuse such power deserve
much praise. Rose walked timidly behind them, wondering how Helen
could have imagined any alliance in the world more brilliant--but no,
that was not the idea--any alliance in the world so _happy_ as that
with Edward Lynne must be. When they reached the commencement of the
village, Edward said, for the fifth or sixth time, "Then you will go,
Helen?"
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