The workhouse did not seem quite so near at hand as the
Captain had implied; but with these sanguine people it is but a step from
disappointment to despair.
"What am I to tell Mrs. Sheldon, papa?" she asked, when she was pouring
out her father's tea.
"Well, I think you had better say nothing, except that my circumstances
have somewhat improved, and that my failing health requires your care."
"I hate secrets, papa."
"So do I, my dear; but half-confidences are more disagreeable than
secrets."
Diana submitted. She secretly reserved to herself the right to tell
Charlotte anything she pleased. From that dear adopted sister she would
hide nothing.
"If M. Lenoble should repeat his offer, and I should accept it, I will
tell her all," she thought. "It will make that dear girl happy to know
that there is some one who loves me, besides herself."
And then she thought of the strange difference of fate that gave to
this Charlotte Halliday, with her rich stepfather and comfortable
surroundings, a penniless soldier of fortune for a lover, while to her,
the spendthrift adventurer's daughter, came a wealthy suitor.
"Will hers be the dinner of herbs, and mine the stalled ox?" she thought.
"Ah, Heaven forbid! Why is it so difficult to love wisely, so easy to
love too well?"
She remembered the cynical French proverb, "When we can not have what
we love, we must love what we have.
Pages:
198
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
220
221
222