"Why are you standing by the door, Mattie? Why don"t you sit down and talk a little of this business of ours?"
"Presently."
"Now--just for a little while. Leave Ann Packet to the lower regions--I"m as talkative to-day as an old woman of sixty. Why, you will not balk me, Mattie?"
"No."
"Read this for me--I have been trying if I can write in the dark--my first attempt at a benighted penmanship."
He held a paper towards her, and Harriet left her post by the door to receive it from his hands.
The writing was large and irregular, but distinct. She shivered as she read the words. The story she had seen so plainly, was more evident than ever.
"_Sidney Hinchford_," she read, "_saved from shipwreck by Mattie Gray!_"
"And Mattie Gray here at my side accounts for my resignation," said he, laying his hand upon Harriet"s. "Mattie, the old friend--after all, the best and truest!"
Harriet did not reply; she shrank more and more, cowering from him as though he saw her there, the unwelcome guest who had forced herself upon him.
"You are going out," he said, noticing the glove upon the hand he had relinquished now.
"Yes, for a little while."
"Don"t be long. Where are you going that I cannot accompany you?"
"On business--I shall be back in an instant."
"Very well," he said, with a half-sigh; "but remember that you have chosen yourself to be my protector, sister, friend, and that I cannot bear you too long away from me. I wish I were more worthy of your notice--that I could return it in some way or fashion not distasteful to you. Sometimes I wish----"
"Say no more!" cried Harriet, with a vehemence that startled him; "I am going away."
The door clanged to and left him alone. She had hurried from the room, shocked at the folly, the mockery of affection which had risen to his lips. Ah! he was a fool still, he thought; he had frightened Mattie by hovering on the verge of that proposal, which he had considered himself bound to make perhaps, out of grat.i.tude for the life of servitude Mattie had chosen for herself. He had been wrong; he had taken a mean advantage, and rendered Mattie"s presence there embarra.s.sing; his desire to be grateful had scared her from him, as well it might--he, a blind man, prating of affection! He had been a fool and coward; he would seal his lips from that day forth, and be all that was wished of him--nothing more. Harriet had made her escape into the narrow pa.s.sage, had contrived to open the street-door, and was preparing to hurry away, when Mattie came towards her.
"Going away without a good-bye, Harriet!"
"I had forgotten," she said coldly.
"What have you said to him?--have you--have you----"
"I have said nothing at which you have reason to feel alarmed," said Harriet; "I have not taken your advice. He thinks and speaks only of you, and I did not break upon his thoughts by any harsh reminiscences."
"You are excited, Harriet; don"t go away yet, with that look. What does it mean?"
"Nothing."
"Has he offended you?"
"No."
"Have I?"
"No," was the cold reiteration. "I am not well. I ought not to have intruded here. I see my mistake, and will not come again."
"I hope you will, many, many times. I build upon you a.s.sisting me in the good work I have begun here. You and I together, in the future, striving for the old friend, Sidney Hinchford."
"I am going away to-morrow--it is doubtful when I shall return, or what use I shall be to either you or him. You understand him better than I."
"I do not understand you this afternoon," said Mattie, surveying her more intently; "what have I done? Don"t you," she added, as a new thought of hers seemed to give a clue to Harriet"s, "think it right that I should be here!"
"If you think so, Mattie, it cannot matter what my opinion is."
"Yes--to me."
"You came hither with the hope of befriending him, as a sister might come? On your honour, with no other motive?"
"On my honour, with none other."
"Why deceive him, then?" was the quick rejoinder; "why tell him that your father gave his consent for your stay here, when he was so opposed to it?"
"He thought so from the first, and I did not undeceive him, lest he should send me away. Have you seen my father?"
"He called last night at our house. He is anxious and distressed about you."
"I am sorry."
"He thinks that you have no right to be here--I think you have now."
"Oh! Harriet, you do not think----"
"Hush! say nothing. You are your own mistress, and I am not angry with you. You have been too good a friend of mine, for me to envy any act of kindness towards him I loved once. I don"t love him now."
"You said you did."
"A romantic fancy--I have been romantic from a child. It is all pa.s.sed away now--remember that when he----"
"When he--_what_?"
"Asks you to be his wife, to become his natural protector; you alone can save him now from desolation--never my task--never now my wish.
Good-bye."
She swept away coldly and proudly, leaving the amazed Mattie watching her departure. What did she mean?--what had Sidney said to her that she should go away like that, distrusting her and the motives which had brought her there--she, of all women in the world!
Mattie went back to Sidney"s room excited and trembling. Close to his side before she startled him by her voice.
"Mr. Sidney, long ago you were proud of being straightforward in your speech--of telling the plain truth, without prevarication."
"Time has not changed me, I hope, Mattie."