"I know I am not as good as I used to be," she admitted. "I know it without being told. Sometimes," very suddenly, "I think I must be growing awfully wicked."
"Well," he commented, "at least one must admit that is a promising state of mind, and augurs well for future repentance."
She shook her head.
"No, it doesn"t," she answered him, "and that is the bad side of it. I am getting worse every day of my life."
"Is it safe," he suggested, cynically,--"is it safe for an innocent individual to cultivate your acquaintance? Would it not be a good plan to isolate yourself from society until you feel that the guileless ones may approach you without fear of contamination? You alarm me."
She lifted up her head, her eyes flas.h.i.+ng.
"_You_ are safe," she said; "so it is rather premature to cry "wolf" so soon."
"It is very plain that you are outgrowing me," he returned. "Dolly herself could not have made a more scathing remark."
But, fond as he was of tormenting her, he did not want to try her too far, and so he endeavored to make friends. But his efforts at reconciliation were not a success. She was not to be coaxed into her sweet mood again; indeed she almost led him to fear that he had wounded her irreparably by his jests. And yet, when he at last consulted his watch, and went to the side-table for his hat and gloves, he turned round to find her large eyes following him in a wistful sort of way.
"Are you going?" she asked him at length, a half-reluctant appeal in her voice.
"I am due at Brabazon Lodge now," he answered.
She said no more after that, but relapsed into silence, and let him go without making an effort to detain him, receiving his adieus in her most indifferent style.
But she was cross and low-spirited when he was gone, and Aimee, coming into the room with her work, found her somewhat hard to deal with, and indeed was moved to tell her so.
"You are a most inexplicable girl, Mollie," she said. "What crotchet is troubling you now?"
"No crotchet at all," she answered, and then all at once she got up and stood before the mantel-gla.s.s, looking at herself fixedly. "Aimee," she said, "if you were a man, would you admire me?"
Aimee gave her a glance, and then answered her with sharp frankness.
"Yes, I should," she said.
She remained standing for a few minutes, taking a survey of herself, front view, side view, and even craning her pretty throat to get a glimpse of her back; and then a pettish sigh burst from her, and she sat down again at her sister"s feet, clasping her hands about her knees in a most unorthodox position.
"I should like to have a great deal of money," she said after a while, and she frowned as she said it.
"That is a startling observation," commented Aimee, "and shows great singularity of taste."
Mollie frowned again, and shrugged one shoulder, but otherwise gave the remark small notice.
"I should like," she proceeded, "to have a carriage, and to live in a grand house, and go to places. I should like to marry somebody rich."
And having blurted out this last confession, she looked half ashamed of herself.
"Mollie," said Aimee, solemnly dropping her hands and her work upon her lap, "I am beginning to feel as Dolly does; I am beginning to be afraid you are going to get yourself into serious trouble."
Then this overgrown baby of theirs, who had so suddenly astonished them all by dropping her babyhood and a.s.serting herself a woman, said something so startling that the wise one fairly lost her breath.
"If I cannot get what I want," she said, deliberately, "I will take what I can get."
"You are going out of your mind," e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed Aimee.
"It does n"t matter if I am," cried the romantic little goose, positively crus.h.i.+ng the oracle by breaking down all at once, and flinging herself upon the hearthrug in a burst of tears,--"it does n"t matter if I am. Who cares for _me_?"
CHAPTER XI. ~ IN WHICH COMES A WIND WHICH BLOWS n.o.bODY GOOD.
THEEE weeks waited the wise one, keeping her eyes on the alert and her small brain busy, but preserving an owl-like silence upon the subject revolving in her mind. But at the end of that time she marched into the parlor one day, attired for a walk, and astonished them all by gravely announcing her intention of going to see Dolly.
"What are you going for?" said Mrs. Phil.
"Rather sudden, is n"t it?" commented Mollie.
"I "m going on business," returned Aimee, and she b.u.t.toned her gloves and took her departure, without enlightening them further.
Arriving at Brabazon Lodge, she found Miss Mac-Dowlas out and Dolly sitting alone in the parlor, with a letter from Griffith in her hand and tears in her eyes.
Her visitor walked to the hearth, her face wrinkling portentously, and kissed her with an air of affectionate severity.
"I don"t know," she began, comprehending matters at a glance, "I am sure I don"t know what I am to do with you all. _You_ are in trouble now."
"Take off your things," said Dolly, with a helpless little sob, "and--and then I will tell you all about it. You must stay and have tea with me. Miss MacDowlas is away, and I--am all alone, and--and, O Aimee!"
The hat and jacket were laid aside in two minutes, and Aimee came back to her and knelt down.
"Is there anything in your letter you do not want me to see?" she asked.
"No," answered Dolly, in despair, and tossed it into her lap.
It was no new story, but this time the Fates seemed to have conspired against her more maliciously than usual. A few days before Grif had found himself terribly dashed in spirit, and under the influence of impulse had written to her. Two or three times in one day he had heard accidental comments upon Gowan"s attentions to her, and on his return to his lodgings at night he had appealed to her in a pa.s.sionate epistle.
He was not going to doubt her again, he said, and he was struggling to face the matter coolly, but he wanted to see her. It would be worse than useless to call upon her at the Lodge, and have an interview under the disapproving eyes of Miss MacDowlas, and so he had thought they might meet again by appointment, as they had done before by chance. And Dolly had acquiesced at once. But Fortune was against her. Just as she had been ready to leave the house, Ralph Gowan had made his appearance, and Miss MacDowlas had called her down-stairs to entertain him.
"I would not have cared about telling," cried Dolly, in tears, "but I could not tell her, and so I had to stay, and--actually--_sing_--Aimee.
Yes, sing detestable love-sick songs, while my own darling, whom I was _dying_ to go to, was waiting outside in the cold. And that was not the worst, either. He was just outside in the road, and when the servants lighted the gas he saw me through the window. And I was at the piano"--in a burst--"and Ralph Gowan was standing by me. And so he went home and wrote _that_," signifying with a gesture the letter Aimee held.
"And everything is wrong again."
It was very plain that everything _was_ wrong again. The epistle in question was an impetuous, impa.s.sioned effusion enough. He was furious against Gowan, and bitter against everybody else. She had cheated and slighted and trifled with him when he most needed her love and pity; but he would not blame her, he could only blame himself for being such an insane, presumptuous fool as to fancy that anything he had to offer could be worthy of any woman.
What had he to offer, etc., for half a dozen almost illegible pages, dashed and crossed, and all on fire with his bitterness and pain.
Having taken it from Aimee, and read it for the twentieth time, Dolly fairly wrung her hands over it.
"If we were only just _together!_" she cried. "If we only just had the tiniest, shabbiest house in the world, and could be married and help each other! He does n"t mean to be unjust or unkind, you know, Aimee; he would be more wretched than I am if he knew how unhappy he has made me."
"Ah!" sighed Aimee. "He should think of that before he begins."
Then she regained possession of the letter, and smoothed out its creases on her knee, finis.h.i.+ng by folding it carefully and returning it to its envelope, looking very grave all the time.