"Yes, most affectionately. He thought of everyone. He asked me if I thought Aline would ever withdraw her denial of Brandon to him. She might, Hilda, don't you think? It would be only kindness, seeing how alone he is and young, and ill fitted for what he has to endure." "If he were our friend, Essie, he might have harder things to bear." "What do you mean, Hilda?" "You cannot guess?" Suddenly Esther turned from me and hid her face in her hands. Her shoulders began to heave up and down, and a heavy sob broke from her. It struck me suddenly that this was the weeping of one used to a burden. The tears flowed very fast as if they had been held back for a long time, and the sobbing went on with a quiet patience that brought a pain into my own heart. "Poor Essie!" I said, "poor Essie!" and then I put my arms about her, and let her cry her fill. "Oh, Hilda!" she whispered at last, "he looks so ill, and I cannot bear it. They will kill him, and I shall die too." "When did it all begin, Esther?" I whispered back again. "The first minute we saw each other, I think. But he went away without speaking, and yet he knew I loved him, and I knew he loved me. It is love for ever with both of us, Hilda." "You haven't been meeting him, Esther?" "Oh, no! you don't think I could? Not secretly, and within Brandon walls. If I met him I should tell everybody. But I'll tell you how it happened. You know your hiding-place in the abbey, of which you gave me the secret?" "My tree? Yes." "Well, I used to go there after he left, where I could be quiet and think. You were keeping the house at the time with a cold, so I was undisturbed. And the second day I was there I saw him riding by, looking so sad and delicate. He did not seem fit to be on horseback at all. And while I was looking down at him, he looked up and saw me. I didn't show myself, indeed, Hilda. It was as if he felt I was there, and obliged me to show my face. I was wearing one of those pale monthly roses in my frock, and he halted under the tree and looked up at me, and called out, 'Give me your rose, Esther, and I shall understand'. And I threw the rose to him. You should have seen his face as he caught it. But I wouldn't stay to speak. I swung myself down from the tree, and ran away as fast as ever I could. After that it came by degrees that I used to be there most days to see him pass by, and every day I gave him a rose, and if it happened that I could not be there at that hour, I used to go early and leave the rose in the abbey window where he could find it." "And was the rose all? Did you never speak?" "He used to say a word or two sometimes, but I would not wait to listen. I knew he loved me, and just then Aline was so troubled about Pierce, and I could not bear to deceive her. I would have felt the deception a stain on our love." "And it went no further than the rose?" "No. Was it very bad, Hilda?"