As both Dolly and herself had expected, Mollie did not keep her secret from the oracle many weeks. It was too much for her to bear alone, and one night, in a fit of candor and remorse, she poured out everything from first to last, all her simple and unsophisticated dreams of grandeur, all her gullibility, all her danger,--everything, indeed, but the story of her pitiful little fancy for Ralph Gowan. She could not give that up, even to Aimee, though at the close of her confidence she was unable to help referring to him.
"And as to Mr. Gowan," she said, "how can I ever speak to him again!
but, perhaps, he would not speak to me. He must think I am wicked and bold and hardened--and bad," with a fresh sob at every adjective. "Oh, dear! oh, dear!" burying her face in Aimee"s lap, "if I had only stayed at home and been good, like you. He could have respected me, at least, couldn"t he? And now--oh, what am I to do!"
Aimee could not help sighing. If she only _had_ stayed at home, how much happier they all might have been! But she had promised Dolly not to add to her unhappiness by hinting at the truth, so she kept her own counsel.
It was fully three months before they saw Ralph Gowan again. He had gone on the Continent, they heard. A feeling of delicacy had prompted the journey. As long as he remained in London, he could scarcely drop out of his old friendly position at Bloomsbury Place, and he felt that for a while at least Mollie would scarcely find it easy to-face him. So he went away and rambled about until he thought she would have time to get over her first embarra.s.sment.
But at the end of the three months he came back, and one afternoon surprised them all by appearing amongst them again. Mollie, sitting perseveringly at work over her penitential sewing, shrank a little, and dropped her eyelids when he came in, but she managed to behave with creditable evenness of manner after all, and the rest welcomed him warmly.
"I have been to Brabazon Lodge," he said at length to Aimee. "I spent Monday evening there, and was startled at the change I found in your sister. I did not know she was ill."
Aimee started herself, and looked up at him with a frightened face.
"Ill!" she said. "Did you say ill?"
It was his turn to be surprised then.
"I thought her looking ill," he answered. "She seemed to me to be both paler and thinner. But you must not let me alarm you,--I thought, of course, that you would know."
"She has never mentioned it in her letters," Aimee said. "And she has not been home for three months, so we have not seen her."
"Don"t let me give you a false impression," returned Gowan, eagerly.
"She seemed in excellent spirits, and was quite her old self; indeed, I scarcely should imagine that she herself placed sufficient stress upon the state of her health. She insisted that she was well when I spoke to her about it."
"I am very glad you told me," answered Aimee. "She is too indifferent sometimes. I am afraid she would not have let us know. I thank you, very much."
He had other thanks before he left the house. As he was going out, Mollie, in her character of porteress, opened the hall door for him, and, having opened it, stood there with Tod"s new garment half concealed, a pair of timid eyes uplifted to his face, a small, trembling, feverish hand held out.
"Mr. Gowan," she said, in a low, fluttering voice. "Oh, if you please--"
He took the little hot hand, feeling some tender remorse for not having tried to draw her out more and help her out of her painful shyness and restraint.
"What is it, Mollie?" he asked.
"I want--I want," fluttering all over,--"I want to thank you better than I did that--that dreadful night. I was so frightened I could scarcely understand. I understand more--now--and I want to tell you how grateful I am--and how grateful I shall be until I die--and I want to ask you to try not to think I was very wicked. I did not mean to be wicked--I was only vain and silly, and I thought it would be such a grand thing to--to have plenty of new dresses," hanging her sweet, humble face, "and to wear diamonds, and be Lady Chandos, if--if Mr. Chandos came into the t.i.tle. Of course that was wicked, but it was n"t--I was n"t as bad as I seemed. I was so vain that--that I was quite sure he loved me, and would be very glad if I married him. He always said he would." And the tears rolled fast down her cheeks.
"Poor Mollie!" said Gowan, patting the trembling hand as if it had been a baby"s. "Poor child!"
"But," Mollie struggled on, penitently, "I shall never be so foolish again. And I am going to try to be good--like Aimee. I am learning to mend things; and I am beginning to make things for Tod. This," holding up her work as proof, "is a dress for him. It is n"t very well done,"
with innocent dubiousness; "but Aimee says I am improving. And so, if you please, would you be so kind as not to think quite so badly of me?"
It was all so humble and pretty and remorseful that he was quite touched by it. That old temptation to kiss and console her made it quite dangerous for him to linger. She was such a lovable sight with her tear-wet cheeks, and that dubious but faithfully worked-at garment of Tod"s in her hand.
"Mollie," he said, "will you believe what I say to you?"
"Oh, yes!" eagerly.
"Then I say to you that I never believed you wicked for an instant,--not for one instant; and now I believe it less than ever; on the contrary, I believe you are a good, honest little creature. Let us forget Gerald Chandos,--he is not worth remembering. And go on with Tod"s pinafores and dresses, my dear, and don"t be discouraged if they are a failure at first,--though to my eyes that dress is a most sumptuous affair. And as to being like Aimee, you cannot be like any one better and wiser and sweeter than that same little maiden. There! I mean every word I have said."
"Are you sure?" faltered Mollie.
"Yes," he replied, "quite sure."
He shook hands with her, and, bidding her goodnight, left her standing in the narrow hall all aglow "with joy. And he, outside, was communing with himself as he walked away.
"She is as sweet in her way as--as the other," he was saying. "And as well worth loving. And what a face she has, if one only saw it with a lover"s eyes! What a face she has, even seeing it with such impartial eyes as mine!"
"My dear Dolly!" said Aimee.
"My dear Aimee!" said Dolly.
These were the first words the two exchanged when, the evening after Ralph Gowan"s visit, the anxious young oracle presented herself at Brabazon Lodge, and was handed into Dolly"s bedroom.
Visitors were expected, and Dolly had been dressing, and was just putting the finis.h.i.+ng touches to her toilet when Aimee came in, and, seeing her as she turned from the gla.s.s to greet her, the wise one could scarcely speak, and, even after she had been kissed most heartily, could only hold the girl"s hand and stand looking up into her changed face, feeling almost shocked.
"Oh, dear me, Dolly!" she said again. "Oh, my dear, what have you been doing to yourself?"
"Doing!" echoed Dolly, just as she would have spoken three or four months ago. "I have been doing nothing, and rather enjoying it. What is the matter with me?" glancing into the mirror. "Pale? That is the result of Miss MacDowlas"s beneficence, you see. She has presented me with this grand black silk gown, and it makes me look pale. Black always did, you know."
But notwithstanding her readiness of speech, it did not need another glance to understand what Ralph Gowan had meant when he said that she was altered. The l.u.s.treless heavy folds of her black silk might contrast sharply with her white skin, but they could not bring about that subtle, almost incomprehensible change in her whole appearance. It was such a subtle change that it was difficult to comprehend. The round, lissome figure she had always been so pardonably vain about, and Grif had so admired, had fallen a little, giving just a hint at a greater change which might show itself sooner or later; her face seemed a trifle more clearly cut than it ought to have been, and the slender throat, set in its surrounding Elizabethan frill of white, seemed more slender than it had used to be. Each change was slight enough in itself, but all together gave a shadowy suggestion of alteration to affectionately quick eyes.
"You are ill," said Aimee. "And you never told me. It was wrong of you.
Don"t tell me it is your black dress; your eyes are too big and bright for any one who is well, and your hand is thinner than it ever was before. Why, I can feel the difference as I hold it, and it is as feverish as it can be."
"You good, silly little thing!" said Dolly, laughing. "I am not ill at all. I have caught a cold, perhaps, but that is all."
"No you have not," contradicted Aimee, with pitiful sharpness. "You have not caught cold, and you must not tell me so. You are ill, and you have been ill for weeks. The worst of colds could never make you look like this. Mr. Gowan might well be startled and wonder--"
"Mr. Gowan!" Dolly interrupted her. "Did _he_ say that he was startled?"
"Yes, he did," Aimee answered. "And that was what brought me here. He was at Bloomsbury Place last night and told me all about you, and I made up my mind that minute that I would come and judge for myself."
Then the girl gave in. She sat down on a chair by the dressing-table and rested her forehead on her hand, laughing faintly, as if in protest against her own subjugation.
"Then I shall have to submit," she said. "The fact is, I sometimes fancy I do feel weaker than I ought to. It is n"t like me to be weak. I was always so strong, you know,--stronger than all the rest of you, I thought. Miss MacDowlas says I do not look well. I suppose," with a half-sigh, "that every one will see it soon. Aimee," hesitating, "don"t tell them at home."
Aimee slipped an arm around her, and drew her head--dressed in all the old elaborateness of pretty coils and braids--upon her own shoulder.
"Darling," she whispered, trying to restrain her tears, "I must tell them at home, because I must take you home to be nursed."
"No, no!" said Dolly, starting, "that would never do. It would never do even to think of it. I am not so ill as that,--not ill enough to be nursed. Besides," her voice sinking all at once, "I could n"t go home, Aimee,--I could not bear to go home now. That is why I have stayed away so long. I believe it would _kill_ me!"
It was impossible for Aimee to hear this and be silent longer. She had, indeed, only been waiting for some reference to the past.
"I knew it was that," she cried. "I knew it the moment Mr. Gowan told me. And I have feared it from the first. Nothing but that could have broken you down like this. Dolly, if Grif could see you now, he would give his heart"s blood to undo what he has done."
The pale little hands lying upon the black dress began to tremble in a strange, piteous weakness.