"Mayn't we be friends, Mr. Marshall?" I said somewhat timidly
at last; for I could not bear the silence.
"I can never be anything else," he said. "You may always
command me. But I have not misunderstood you, Daisy? You meant
to tell me that - some one has been more fortunate than I, and
been beforehand with me ?"
"I did not mean to tell you that," I said in a good deal of
confusion.
"But it is true ?" he said, looking searchingly at me.
"Nobody knows it, Hugh," I said. "Not my mother nor my
father."
The silence fell again and again became painful. The others of
our party were well in advance. - We caught no glimpse of them
yet.
"We will be friends, Mr. Marshall?" - I said anxiously.
"Yes, we will be friends, Daisy; but I cannot be a friend near
you. I cannot see you any longer. I shall be a wreck now, I
suppose. You might have made me - anything !"
"You will make yourself a noble name and place in the world,"
I said, laying my hand on his arm. "The name and the place of
a servant of God. Won't you, Hugh? Then you will come to true
joy, and honour - the joy and honour that God gives. Let me
have the joy of knowing that! I have done so much mischief, -
let me know that the mischief is mended."
"What mischief have you done?" he asked, with his voice
roughened by feeling.
"I did not know what I was leading you - and others - into."
"You led to nothing; except as the breath of a rose leads one
to stretch out one's hand for it," he answered. "The rose has
as much design!"
He turned aside hastily, stooped for a little twig that lay on
the roadside, and began assiduously breaking it up. And the
silence was not interrupted again, till we came in sight of
our friends in advance of us, leisurely walking to let us come
up. Then Hugh and I plunged into conversation; but what it was
about I have not the least remembrance. It lasted though, till
we joined company with the rest of our party, and the talk
became general. Still I do not know what we talked about. I
had a feeling of thunder in the air, though the very stillness
of sunlight beauty was on the smooth water and the hilly
shore; and I saw clouds rising and gathering, even though Mont
Blanc as we returned that evening showed rosy hues to its very
summit in the clear heaven. I can hardly tell how, my mother's
manner or something in it, made me sure both of the clouds and
the thunder. It was full of grace, tact and spirit, to such a
point of admiration. Yet I read in it, yes, and in that very
grace and spirit, a certain state of the nervous powers which
told of excitement at work, or a fund of determination
gathering; the electric forces massing somewhere; and this
luminous play only foretold the lightning.