"Be glad!"
"No--no! I am afraid of myself----"
"We will help you. When you are well again, your mind will be
stronger to resist. Not _that_--never _that_! You know it is
impossible."
"I know. And there is one thing that would really make it so. I
haven't told you--another thing I had to say--why I wanted so to
see you."
Irene looked kindly into the agitated face.
"It's about Piers Otway. He came to see us here. I had formed a hope
----"
"Olga?"
"Yes. Oh, if that could be!"
She caught the girl's hand in her hot palms, and seemed to entreat
her for a propitious word. Irene was very still, thinking; and at
length she smiled.
"Who can say? Olga is good and clever----"
"It might have been; I know it might. But after this?"
"More likely than not," said Irene, with a half-absent look, "this
would help to bring it about."
"Dear, only your marriage could have changed him--nothing else.
Oh, I am sure, nothing else! He has the warmest and truest heart!"
Irene sat with bowed head, her lips compressed; she smiled again,
but more faintly. In the silence there sounded a soft tap at the
door.
"I will see who it is," said Irene.
Olga stood without, holding a letter. She whispered that the
handwriting of the address (to Mrs. Hannaford) was Piers Otway's,
and that possibly this meant important news. Irene took the letter,
and re-entered the room.
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