"Why are you doing it, Sara Lee?" she asked.
"Doing what?"
"Marrying Harvey."
Sara Lee looked at her with startled eyes.
"I'm engaged to him, Belle. I've promised."
"Exactly," said Belle dryly. "But that's hardly a good reason, is it?
It takes more than a promise." She stared down at the flock of children
in the yard below. "Harvey's a man," she said. "He doesn't understand,
but I do. You've got to care a whole lot, Sara Lee, if you're going to
go through with it. It takes a lot of love, when it comes to having
children and all that."
"He's so good, Belle. How can I hurt him?"
"You'll hurt him a lot more by marrying him when you don't love him."
"If only I could have a little time," she cried wildly. "I'm so--I'm
tired, Belle. And I can't forget about the war and all that. I've
tried. Sometimes I think if we could talk it over together I'd get it
out of my mind."
"He won't talk about it?"
"He's my own brother, and I love him dearly. But sometimes I think he's
hard. Not that he's ever ugly," she hastened to add; "but he's stubborn.
There's a sort of wall in him, and he puts some things behind it. And
it's like beating against a rock to try to get at them."
After a little silence she said hesitatingly: "We've got him to think of too. He has a right to be happy. Sometimes
I've looked at you--you're so pretty, Sara Lee--and I've wondered if
there wasn't some one over there who--cared for you."
"There was one man, an officer--Oh, Belle, I can't tell you. Not you!"
"Why not!" asked Belle practically. "You ought to talk it out to some
one, and if Harvey insists on being a fool that's his own fault."
For all the remainder of that sunny morning Sara Lee talked what was in
her heart. And Belle--poor, romantic, starved Belle--heard and
thrilled. She made buttonholes as she listened, but once or twice a
new tone in Sara Lee's voice caused her to look up. Here was a new
Sara Lee, a creature of vibrant voice and glowing eyes; and Belle was
not stupid. She saw that it was Henri whose name brought the deeper note.
Sara Lee had stopped with her recall, had stopped and looked about the
room with its shiny new furniture and had shivered. Belle bent over her
work.