trying to keep your love??
“It is not yours yet,” began Rose, much moved, though all the
while she felt as if she were on a stage and had a part to play, for
Charlie had made life so like a melodrama that it was hard for him
to be quite simple even when most sincere.
“Let me earn it, then. Show me how, and I’ll do anything, for you
are my good angel, Rose, and if you cast me off, I feel as if I
shouldn’t care how soon there was an end of me,” cried Charlie,
getting tragic in his earnestness and putting both arms around her,
as if his only safety lay in clinging to this beloved fellow creature.
Behind footlights it would have been irresistible, but somehow it
did not touch the one spectator, though she had neither time nor
skill to discover why. For all their ardor the words did not ring
quite true. Despite the grace of the attitude, she would have liked
him better manfully erect upon his feet, and though the gesture
was full of tenderness, a subtle instinct made her shrink away as
she said with a composure that surprised herself even more than it
did him: “Please don’t. No, I will promise nothing yet, for I must
respect the man I love.?
That brought Charlie to his feet, pale with something deeper than
anger, for the recoil told him more plainly than the words how
much he had fallen in her regard since yesterday. The memory of
the happy moment when she gave the rose with that new softness
in her eyes, the shy color, the sweet “for my sake” came back with
sudden vividness, contrasting sharply with the now averted face,
the hand outstretched to put him back, the shrinking figure, and in
that instant’s silence, poor Charlie realized what he had lost, for a
girl’s first thought of love is as delicate a thing as the rosy morning
glory, which a breath of air can shatter. Only a hint of evil, only an
hour’s debasement for him, a moment’s glimpse for her of the
coarser pleasures men know, and the innocent heart, just opening
to bless and to be blessed, closed again like a sensitive plant and
shut him out perhaps forever.
The consciousness of this turned him pale with fear, for his love
was deeper than she knew, and he proved this when he said in a
tone so full of mingled pain and patience that it touched her to the
heart: “You shall respect me if I can make you, and when I’ve
earned it, may I hope for something more??
She looked up then, saw in his face the noble shame, the humble
sort of courage that shows repentance to be genuine and gives
promise of success, and, with a hopeful smile that was a cordial to
him, answered heartily: “You may.?
“Bless you for that! I’ll make no promises, I’ll ask for none only
trust me, Rose, and while you treat me like a cousin, remember
that no matter how many lovers you may have you’ll never be to
any of them as dear as you are to me.?
A traitorous break in his voice warned Charlie to stop there, and
with no other good-bye, he very wisely went away, leaving Rose to
put the neglected flowers into water with remorseful care and lay
away the bracelet, saying to herself: “I’ll never wear it till I feel as I
did before. Then he shall put it on and I’ll say ‘yes.’ ?
Chapter 11 SMALL TEMPTATIONS
“Oh, Rose, I’ve got something so exciting to tell you!” cried Kitty
Van Tassel, skipping into the carriage next morning when her
friend called for her to go shopping.
Kitty always did have some “perfectly thrilling” communication to
make and Rose had learned to take them quietly, but the next
demonstration was a new one, for, regardless alike of curious
observers outside and disordered hats within, Kitty caught Rose
around the neck, exclaiming in a rapturous whisper: “My dearest
creature, I’m engaged!?
“I’m so glad! Of course it is Steve??
“Dear fellow, he did it last night in the nicest way, and Mama is so
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