"Do talk, Langley; it will do you good. You have kept it all in too long, and it has done you harm. No one wants me, and I can sit beside you a little. When I hear the least movement in Emmie's room I will go in." "We ought not to leave him long alone," she answered, faintly. "Garth must go in to him presently. He would mind me, I know; but I dare not let him see me like this. Oh, Queenie, whatever sorrow you may have to bear, may you never know mine--to bring trouble on the man you love, and then not to be able to comfort him!" Queenie stroked her hair softly; there was sympathy conveyed in every touch. "Tell me all about it, Langley," she whispered; "I always knew you had a grief. If you loved Mr. Chester, and he cared for you, why did you not marry him?" "Why, indeed! I have had five years in which to ask myself that question. I loved him, of course. We had grown up together; as long as I could remember, Harry and I had been together caring for each other. Garth, every one, expected how it would be." "Perhaps they all took it too much as a matter of course." "How did you know that?" lifting her head from Queenie's shoulder. "No one can have told you. I never had any confidant." "One guesses things by instinct sometimes." "You are young to know human nature so well," sinking back with a sigh. "Ah, six years ago I was like Cathy--proud, impulsive, and loving my own will. I had a great notion of independence. I thought women were not allowed enough liberty, that they held themselves too cheaply; and though I loved Harry, I was not quite willing to marry him." "That sounds strange. I can hardly imagine you like Cathy." "No; my self-will is broken now; I have expiated my girlish failings too bitterly. One's spirit dies under such an ordeal. But though I blame myself, not him, I think a stronger nature would have controlled me." "Did you refuse him then?" "I suppose I did. He came to me one day; things had been going on for a long time, but there had been no actual wooing. Harry was a matter-of-fact man, and I was just the reverse. I had got my head full of novels, and had framed my own ideas of love-making. I wanted an ardent lover, one who would carry me away with the force of his own feelings. The quiet, business-like manner in which Harry spoke fired my pride and resolved me; besides, as I said before, that though I loved him, I was not quite willing to be married." "Do you remember what he said to you?" "Yes; his very words. I was in the drawing-room at Church-Stile House, and he came to me looking very quiet and pale. 'Langley,' he said, 'this has been going on a long time, too long, Garth and I think, and I don't seem to be any nearer to what I wish. We care for each other, I know. Can you not make up your mind to be my wife? Karldale Grange is waiting for its mistress.' Just that; not a word of his love for me, not a single protestation." "I think it was very honest and straight-forward."