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Page 18
Florence looks at her questioningly.
"I think one really honest lover is worth a dozen others," she says,
her voice trembling. "Do you mean me to understand, Dora, that you have
gained one to-night?"
Florence's whole soul seems to hang on her cousin's answer. Dora
simpers, and tries to blush, but in reality grows a shade paler. She
is playing for a high stake, and fears to risk a throw lest it may be
ventured too soon.
"Oh, you must not ask too much!" she replies, shaking her blonde head.
"A lover--no! How can you be so absurd! And yet I think--I hope--"
"I see!" interrupts Florence sadly. "Well, I will be as discreet as you
wish; but at least, if what I imagine be true, I can congratulate you
with all my heart, because I know--I know you will be happy."
Going over to Mrs. Talbot, she lays her arms round her neck and kisses
her softly. As she does so, a tear falls from her eyes upon Dora's
cheek. There is so much sweetness and abandonment of self in this action
that Dora for the moment is touched by it. She puts up her hand, and,
wiping away the tear from her cheek as though it burns her, says
lightly--
"But indeed, my dearest Flo, you must not imagine anything. All is
vague. I myself hardly know what it is to which I am alluding. 'Trifles
light as air' float through my brain, and gladden me in spite of my
common sense, which whispers that they may mean nothing. Do not build
castles for me that may have their existence only _en Espagne_."
"They seem very bright castles," observes Florence wistfully.
"A bad omen. 'All that's bright must fade,' sings the poet. And now to
speak of yourself. You enjoyed yourself?"
"Of course--" mechanically.
"Ah, yes; I was glad to see you had made it up with poor Arthur
Dynecourt!"
"How?" demands Florence, turning upon her quickly.
"I saw you dancing with him, dearest; I was with Sir Adrian at the time,
and from something he said, I think he would be rather pleased if you
could bring yourself to reward poor Arthur's long devotion."
"Sir Arthur said that? He discussed me with you?"
"Just in passing, you understand. He told me too that you were somewhat
unhappy in the earlier part of the evening, and that he had to stay a
considerable time with you to restore you to calmness. He is always so
kind, dear Adrian!"
"He spoke of that?" demands Florence, in a tone of anguish. If he had
made her emotion a subject of common talk with Mrs. Talbot, all indeed
is at an end between them, even that sweet visionary offer of friendship
he had made to her. No; she could not submit to be talked about by him,
and the woman he loves! Oh, the bitter pang it costs her to say these
words to herself! That he now loves Dora seems to her mind beyond
dispute. Is she not his confidante, the one in whom he chooses to repose
all his secret thoughts and surmises?
Dora regards her cousin keenly. Florence's evident agitation makes her
fear that there was more in that _t�te-�-t�te_ with Sir Adrian than she
had at first imagined.
"Yes; why should he not speak of it?" Dora goes on coldly. "I think by
his manner your want of self-control shocked him. You should have a
greater command over yourself. It is not good form to betray one's
feelings to every chance passer-by. Yes; I think Sir Adrian was both
surprised and astonished."
"There was nothing to cause him either surprise or astonishment," says
Florence haughtily; "and I could well have wished him out of the way!"
"Perhaps I misunderstood him," rejoins Dora artfully. "But certainly
he spoke to me of being unpleasantly delayed by--by impossible
people--those were his very words; and really altogether--I may be
wrong--I believed he alluded to you. Of course, I would not follow the
matter up, because, much as I like Sir Adrian, I could not listen to him
speaking lightly of you!"
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