ISABEL looked down at the letter in her hand--considered it in silence--and turned to Moody. "I feel tempted to open it already," she said.
"After giving your promise?" Moody gently remonstrated. Isabel met that objection with a woman's logic.
"Does a promise matter?" she asked, "when one gives it to a dirty, disreputable, presuming old wretch like Mr. Sharon? It's a wonder to me that you trust such a creature. _I_ wouldn't!""I doubted him just as you do," Moody answered, "when I first saw him in company with Mr. Troy. But there was something in the advice he gave us at that first consultation which altered my opinion of him for the better. I dislike his appearance and his manners as much as you do--I may even say I felt ashamed of bringing such a person to see you. And yet I can't think that I have acted unwisely in employing Mr. Sharon."Isabel listened absently. She had something more to say, and she was considering how she should say it. "May I ask you a bold question?" she began.
"Any question you like."
"Have you--" she hesitated and looked embarrassed. "Have you paid Mr. Sharon much money?" she resumed, suddenly rallying her courage. Instead of answering, Moody suggested that it was time to think of returning to Miss Pink's villa. "Your aunt may be getting anxious about you." he said.
Isabel led the way out of the farmhouse in silence. She reverted to Mr. Sharon and the money, however, as they returned by the path across the fields.
"I am sure you will not be offended with me," she said gently, "if I own that I am uneasy about the expense. I am allowing you to use your purse as if it was mine--and I have hardly any savings of my own."Moody entreated her not to speak of it. "How can I put my money to a better use than in serving your interests?" he asked. "My one object in life is to relieve you of your present anxieties. I shall be the happiest man living if you only owe a moment's happiness to my exertions!"Isabel took his hand, and looked at him with grateful tears in her eyes. "How good you are to me, Mr. Moody!" she said. "I wish I could tellyou how deeply I feel your kindness."
"You can do it easily," he answered, with a smile. "Call me 'Robert' -- don't call me 'Mr. Moody.' "She took his arm with a sudden familiarity that charmed him. "If you had been my brother I should have called you 'Robert,' " she said; "and no brother could have been more devoted to me than you are."He looked eagerly at her bright face turned up to his. "May I never hope to be something nearer and dearer to you than a brother?" he asked timidly.
She hung her head and said nothing. Moody's memory recalled Sharon's coarse reference to her "sweetheart." She had blushed when he put the question? What had she done when Moody put _his_ question? Her face answered for her--she had turned pale; she was looking more serious than usual. Ignorant as he was of the ways of women, his instinct told him that this was a bad sign. Surely her rising color would have confessed it, if time and gratitude together were teaching her to love him? He sighed as the inevitable conclusion forced itself on his mind.
"I hope I have not offended you?" he said sadly. "Oh, no.""I wish I had not spoken. Pray don't think that I am serving you with any selfish motive.""I don't think that, Robert. I never could think it of _you_."He was not quite satisfied yet. "Even if you were to marry some other man," he went on earnestly, "it would make no difference in what I am trying to do for you. No matter what I might suffer, I should still go on-- for your sake.""Why do you talk so?" she burst out passionately. "No other man has such a claim as you to my gratitude and regard. How can you let such thoughts come to you? I have done nothing in secret. I have no friends who are not known to you. Be satisfied with that, Robert--and let us drop the subject.""Never to take it up again?" he asked, with the infatuated pertinacity of a man clinging to his last hope.
At other times and under other circumstances, Isabel might have answered him sharply. She spoke with perfect gentleness now.
"Not for the present," she said. "I don't know my own heart. Give metime."
His gratitude caught at those words, as the drowning man is said to catch at the proverbial straw. He lifted her hand, and suddenly and fondly pressed his lips on it. She showed no confusion. Was she sorry for him, poor wretch!--and was that all?
They walked on, arm-in-arm, in silence.
Crossing the last field, they entered again on the high road leading to the row of villas in which Miss Pink lived. The minds of both were preoccupied. Neither of them noticed a gentleman approaching on horseback, followed by a mounted groom. He was advancing slowly, at the walking-pace of his horse, and he only observed the two foot- passengers when he was close to them.
"Miss Isabel!"
She started, looked up, and discovered--Alfred Hardyman.
He was dressed in a perfectly-made travelling suit of light brown, with a peaked felt hat of a darker shade of the same color, which, in a picturesque sense, greatly improved his personal appearance. His pleasure at discovering Isabel gave the animation to his features which they wanted on ordinary occasions. He sat his horse, a superb hunter, easily and gracefully. His light amber-colored gloves fitted him perfectly. His obedient servant, on another magnificent horse, waited behind him. He looked the impersonation of rank and breeding--of wealth and prosperity. What a contrast, in a woman's eyes, to the shy, pale, melancholy man, in the ill-fitting black clothes, with the wandering, uneasy glances, who stood beneath him, and felt, and showed that he felt, his inferior position keenly! In spite of herself, the treacherous blush flew over Isabel's face, in Moody's presence, and with Moody's eyes distrustfully watching her.