Presently she reappeared at the door, with a goblet in her hand.
"Uncle Allan, who carries the keys now?"
"Edna. What will you have, my dear?"
"I want some brandy. Gordon looks very pale, and complains of not feeling well, so I intend to make him a mint-julep. Ah, Edna! These husbands are such troublesome creatures."
She left the room jingling the bunch of keys, and a few moments after they heard her humming an air from "Rigoletto," as she bent over the mint-bed, under the study window.
Mr. Hammond, who had observed all that passed, and saw the earnest distress clouding the orphan's brow, said gravely: "She has not changed an iota; she never will be anything more than a beautiful, merry child, and is a mere pretty pet, not a companion in the true sense of the word. She is not quick-witted, or she would discern a melancholy truth that might overshadow all her life. Unless Gordon learns more self-control, he will ere long betray himself. I expostulated with him before his marriage, but for once he threw my warning to the winds. I am an old man, and have seen many phases of human nature, and watched the development of many characters; and I have found that these pique marriages are always mournful--always disastrous. In such instances I would with more pleasure officiate at the grave than at the altar. Once Estelle and Agnes persuaded me that St. Elmo was about to wreck himself on this rock of ruin, and even his mother's manner led me to believe that he would marry his cousin; but, thank God! he was wiser than I feared."
"Mr. Hammond, are you sure that Gertrude loves Mr. Leigh?"
"Oh! yes, my dear! Of that fact there can be no doubt. Why do you question it?"
"She told me once that Mr. Murray had won her heart."
It was the first time Edna had mentioned his name since her return, and it brought a faint flush to her cheeks.
"That was a childish whim which she has utterly forgotten. A woman of her temperament never remains attached to a man from whom she is long separated. I do not suppose that she remembered St. Elmo a month after she ceased to meet him. I feel assured that she loves Gordon as well as she can love any one. She is a remarkably sweet- tempered, unselfish, gladsome woman, but is not capable of very deep, lasting feeling."
"I will go away at once. This is Saturday, and I will start to New York early Monday morning. Mr. Leigh is weaker than I ever imagined he could be."