Mrs. Cameron had said they were not a family to bruit their affairs abroad, and if so, Bell was not like her family, for she answered frankly:  “Just before he went away.  It’s a splendid diamond, isn’t it?” and she held it up for Helen to inspect.

The basket was empty by this time, and as Aunt Betsy went to fill it from the trees, Bell and Helen were left alone, the former continuing in a low, sad tone:  “I’ve been so sorry sometimes that I did not tell Bob I loved him, when he wished me to so much.”

“Not tell him you loved him!  How then could you tell him yes, as it appears you did?” Helen asked, and Bell answered:  “I could not well help that; it came so sudden and he begged so hard, saying my promise would make him a better man, a better soldier and all that.  It was the very night before he went, and so I said that out of pity and patriotism I would give the promise, and I did, but it seemed too much for a woman to tell a man all at once that she loved him, and I wouldn’t do it, but I’ve been sorry since; oh, so sorry, during the two days when we heard nothing from him after that dreadful battle at Bull Run.  We knew he was in it, and I thought I should die until his telegram came saying he was safe.  I did sit down then and commence a letter, confessing all I felt, but I tore it up, and he don’t know now just how I feel.”

“And do you really love him?” Helen asked, puzzled by this strange girl, who laughingly held up her soft, white hand, stained and blackened with the juice of the fruit she had been paring, and said:  “Do you suppose I would spoil my hands like that and incur ma chere-mamma’s displeasure, if Bob were not in the army and I did not care for him?  And now that I have confessed so much, allow me to catechise you.  Did Mark Ray ever propose and you refuse him?”

“Never!” and Helen’s face grew crimson, while Bell continued:  “That is funny.  Half our circle think so, though how the impression was first given I do not know.  Mother told me, but would not tell where she received her information.  I heard of it again in a few days, and have reason to believe that Mrs. Banker knows it too and feels a little uncomfortable that her son should be refused when she considers him worthy of the empress herself.”

Helen was very white, and her limbs shook as she asked:  “And how with Mark and Juno?”

“Oh, off and on,” Bell replied; “that is, Juno is always on, while Mark is more uncertain, and Juno really has improved in some respects.  As I wrote you once, she is very docile when with Mark, and acts as if trying to atone for something—­her old badness, I guess.  You are certain you never cared for Mark Ray?”

This was so abrupt and Bell’s eyes were so searching that Helen grew giddy for a moment and grasped the back of the chair, as she replied:  “I did not say I never cared for him.  I said he never proposed; and that is true; he never did.”