‘Now, you mustn’t be naughty!’

They laugh and flatter one another.  The power to give and take flattery to any amount is the rare treasure of youth.

Undoubtedly they are a poetical picture; but some poetical pictures talk dreary prose; so we will retire.

Now, while the dancers carried on their business, and distance lent them enchantment, Rose stood by Juliana, near an alder which hid them from the rest.

‘I don’t accuse you,’ she was saying; ’but who could have done this but you?  Ah, Juley! you will never get what you want if you plot for it.  I thought once you cared for Evan.  If he had loved you, would I not have done all that I could for you both?  I pardon you with all my heart.’

‘Keep your pardon!’ was the angry answer.  ’I have done more for you, Rose.  He is an adventurer, and I have tried to open your eyes and make you respect your family.  You may accuse me of what you like, I have my conscience.’

‘And the friendship of the Countess,’ added Rose.

Juliana’s figure shook as if she had been stung.

‘Go and be happy—­don’t stay here and taunt me,’ she said, with a ghastly look.  ’I suppose he can lie like his sister, and has told you all sorts of tales.’

‘Not a word—­not a word!’ cried Rose.  ’Do you think my lover could tell a lie?’

The superb assumption of the girl, and the true portrait of Evan’s character which it flashed upon Juliana, were to the latter such intense pain, that she turned like one on the rack, exclaiming: 

’You think so much of him?  You are so proud of him?  Then, yes!  I love him too, ugly, beastly as I am to look at!  Oh, I know what you think!  I loved him from the first, and I knew all about him, and spared him pain.  I did not wait for him to fall from a horse.  I watched every chance of his being exposed.  I let them imagine he cared for me.  Drummond would have told what he knew long before—­only he knew there would not be much harm in a tradesman’s son marrying me.  And I have played into your hands, and now you taunt me!’

Rose remembered her fretful unkindness to Evan on the subject of his birth, when her feelings toward him were less warm.  Dwelling on that alone, she put her arms round Juliana’s stiffening figure, and said:  ’I dare say I am much more selfish than you.  Forgive me, dear.’

Staring at her, Juliana replied, ‘Now you are acting.’

‘No,’ said Rose, with a little effort to fondle her; ’I only feel that I love you better for loving him.’

Generous as her words sounded, and were, Juliana intuitively struck to the root of them, which was comfortless.  For how calm in its fortune, how strong in its love, must Rose’s heart be, when she could speak in this unwonted way!

‘Go, and leave me, pray,’ she said.

Rose kissed her burning cheek.  ’I will do as you wish, dear.  Try and know me better, and be sister Juley as you used to be.  I know I am thoughtless, and horribly vain and disagreeable sometimes.  Do forgive me.  I will love you truly.’