"Miss Vizard," she said, "excuse my receiving you so; but you may have heard I am very poor. My last candle is gone. But perhaps the landlady would lend me one. I don't know. She is very disobliging, and very cruel.""Then she shall not have the honor of lending you a candle," said Zoe, with one of her gushes. "Now, to tell the truth," said she, altering to the cheerful, "I'm rather glad. I would rather talk to you in the dark for a little, just at first. May I?" By this time she had gradually crept up to Rhoda.
"I am afraid you _must,"_ said Rhoda. "But at least I can offer you a seat."Zoe sat down, and there was an awkward silence.
"Oh, dear," said Zoe; "I don't know how to begin. I wish you would give me your hand, as I can't see your face.""With all my heart: there."
(Almost in a whisper) "He has told me."
Rhoda put the other hand to her face, though it was so dark.
"Oh, Miss Gale, how _could_ you? Only think! Suppose you had killed yourself, or made yourself very ill. Your mother would have come directly and found you so; and only think how unhappy you would have made her.""Can I have forgotten my mother?" asked Rhoda of herself, but aloud.
"Not willfully, I am sure. But you know geniuses are not always wise in these little things. They want some good humdrum soul to advise them in the common affairs of life. That want is supplied you now; for _I_ am here--ha-ha!""You are no more commonplace than I am; much less now, I'll be bound.""We will put that to the test," said Zoe, adroitly enough. _"My_ view of all this is--that here is a young lady in want of money _for a time,_ as everybody is now and then, and that the sensible course is to borrow some till your mother comes over with her apronful of dollars. Now, I have twenty pounds to lend, and, if you are so mighty sensible as you say, you won't refuse to borrow it.""Oh, Miss Vizard, you are very good; but I am afraid and ashamed to borrow. I never did such a thing.""Time you began, then. _I_ have--often. But it is no use arguing. You _must--_or you will get poor me finely scolded. Perhaps he was on his good behavior with you, being a stranger; but at home they expect to be obeyed. He will be sure to say it was my stupidity, and that _he_ would have made you directly.""Do tell!" cried Rhoda, surprised into an idiom; "as if I'd have taken money from _him!"_"Why, of course not; but between _us_ it is nothing at all. There:" and she put the money into Rhoda's hand, and then held both hand and money rather tightly imprisoned in her larger palm, and began to chatter, so as to leave the other no opening. "Oh, blessed darkness! how easy it makes things! does it not? I am glad there was no candle; we should have been fencing and blushing ever so long, and made such a fuss about nothing--and--"This prattle was interrupted by Rhoda Gale putting her right wrist round Zoe's neck, and laying her forehead on her shoulder with a little sob. So then they both distilled the inevitable dew-drops.
But as Rhoda was not much given that way, she started up, and said, "Darkness? No; I must see the face that has come here to help me, and not humiliate me. That is the first use I'll make of the money. I am afraid you are rather plain, or you couldn't be so good as all this.""No," said Zoe. "I'm not reckoned plain; only as black as a coal.""All the more to my taste," said Rhoda, and flew out of the room, and nearly stumbled over a figure seated on a step of the staircase. "Who are you?" said she, sharply.
"My name is Severne."
"And what are you doing there?"
"Waiting for Miss Vizard."
"Come in, then."
"She told me not."
"Then I tell you _to._ The idea! Miss Vizard!""Yes!"
"Please have Mr. Severne in. Here he is sitting--like Grief--on the steps. I will soon be back."She flew to the landlady. "Mrs. Grip, I want a candle.""Well, the shops are open," said the woman, rudely.
"Oh, I have no time. Here is a sovereign. Please give me two candles directly, candlesticks and all."The woman's manner changed directly.
"You shall have them this moment, miss, and my own candlesticks, which they are plated."She brought them, and advised her only to light one. "They don't carry well, miss," said she. "They are wax--or summat.""Then they are summat," said Miss Gale, after a single glance at their composition.
"I'll make you a nice hot supper, miss, in half an hour," said the woman, maternally, as if she were going to _give_ it her.
"No, thank you. Bring me a two-penny loaf, and a scuttle of coals.""La, miss, no more than that--out of a sov'?""Yes--THE CHANGE."
Having shown Mrs. Grip her father was a Yankee, she darted upstairs, with her candles. Zoe came to meet her, and literally dazzled her.
Rhoda stared at her with amazement and growing rapture. "Oh, you beauty!"she cried, and drank her in from head to foot.
"Well," said she, drawing a long breath, "Nature, you have turned out a _com-_plete article this time, I reckon." Then, as Severne laughed merrily at this, she turned her candle and her eyes full on him very briskly. She looked at him for a moment, with a gratified eye at his comeliness; then she started. "Oh!" she cried.
He received the inspection merrily, till she uttered that ejaculation, then he started a little, and stared at her.
"We have met before," said she, almost tenderly.
"Have we?" said he, putting on a mystified air.
She fixed him, and looked him through and through.
"You--don't--remember--me?" asked she. Then, after giving him plenty of time to answer, "Well, then, I must be mistaken;" and her words seemed to freeze themselves and her as they fell.
She turned her back on him, and said to Zoe, with a good deal of sweetness and weight, "I have lived to see goodness and beauty united. Iwill never despair of human nature."
This was too pointblank for Zoe; she blushed crimson, and said archly, "Ithink it is time for me to run. Oh, but I forgot; here is my card. We are all at that hotel. If I am so very attractive, you will come and see me--we leave town very soon--will you?""I will," said Rhoda.
"And since you took me for an old acquaintance, I hope you will treat me as one," said Severne, with consummate grace and assurance.
"I will, _sir,"_ said she, icily, and with a marvelous curl of the lip that did not escape him.
She lighted them down the stairs, gazed after Zoe, and ignored Severne altogether.