During three days Dorothy went about the house as quiet as a mouse, sitting nightly at her aunt’s bedside, and tending the sick woman with the closest care. She, too, had been now and again somewhat startled by the seeming worldliness of her aunt in her illness. Her aunt talked to her about rents, and gave her messages for Brooke Burgess on subjects which seemed to Dorothy to be profane when spoken of on what might perhaps be a deathbed. And this struck her the more strongly, because she had a matter of her own on which she would have much wished to ascertain her aunt’s opinion, if she had not thought that it would have been exceedingly wrong of her to trouble her aunt’s mind at such a time by any such matter. Hitherto she had said not a word of Brooke’s proposal to any living being. At present it was a secret with herself, but a secret so big that it almost caused her bosom to burst with the load that it bore. She could not, she thought, write to Priscilla till she had told her aunt. If she were to write a word on the subject to anyone, she could not fail to make manifest the extreme longing of her own heart. She could not have written Brooke’s name on paper, in reference to his words to herself, without covering it with epithets of love. But all that must be known to no one if her love was to be of no avail to her. And she had an idea that her aunt would not wish Brooke to marry her—would think that Brooke should do better; and she was quite clear that in such a matter as this her aunt’s wishes must be law. Had not her aunt the power of disinheriting Brooke altogether? And what then if her aunt should die—should die now—leaving Brooke at liberty to do as he pleased? There was something so distasteful to her in this view of the matter that she would not look at it. She would not allow herself to think of any success which might possibly accrue to herself by reason of her aunt’s death. Intense as was the longing in her heart for permission from those in authority over her to give herself to Brooke Burgess, perfect as was the earthly Paradise which appeared to be open to her when she thought of the good thing which had befallen her in that matter, she conceived that she would be guilty of the grossest ingratitude were she in any degree to curtail even her own estimate of her aunt’s prohibitory powers because of her aunt’s illness. The remembrance of the words which Brooke had spoken to her was with her quite perfect. She was entirely conscious of the joy which would be hers, if she might accept those words as properly sanctioned; but she was a creature in her aunt’s hands—according to her own ideas of her own duties; and while her aunt was ill she could not even learn what might be the behests which she would be called on to obey.
She was sitting one evening alone, thinking of all this, having left Martha with her aunt, and was trying to reconcile the circumstances of her life as it now existed with the circumstances as they had been with her in the old days at Nuncombe Putney, wondering at herself in that she should have a lover, and trying to convince herself that for her this little episode of romance could mean nothing serious, when Martha crept down into the room to her. Of late days—the alteration might perhaps be dated from the rejection of Mr. Gibson—Martha, who had always been very kind, had become more respectful in her manner to Dorothy than had heretofore been usual with her. Dorothy was quite aware of it, and was not unconscious of a certain rise in the world which was thereby indicated. “If you please, miss,” said Martha, “who do you think is here?”
“But there is nobody with my aunt?” said Dorothy.
“She is sleeping like a babby, and I came down just for a moment. Mr. Gibson is here, miss—in the house! He asked for your aunt, and when, of course, he could not see her, he asked for you.” Dorothy for a few minutes was utterly disconcerted, but at last she consented to see Mr. Gibson. “I think it is best,” said Martha, “because it is bad to be fighting, and missus so ill. ‘Blessed are the peacemakers,’ miss, ‘for they shall be called the children of God.’ ” Convinced by this argument, or by the working of her own mind, Dorothy directed that Mr. Gibson might be shown into the room. When he came, she found herself unable to address him. She remembered the last time in which she had seen him, and was lost in wonder that he should be there. But she shook hands with him, and went through some form of greeting in which no word was uttered.
“I hope you will not think that I have done wrong,” said
