She looked up at him with a bright, grateful
smile, but she apparently saw something in his eager face and manner
which checked her smile as suddenly as if he had been an apparition.
she gave him her hand, saying hastily, "Good-night, Mr. Van Berg;
I thank you. I--I--do not feel very well," and she passed swiftly
to a side door and disappeared.
Chapter XX. A Wretched Secret that Must be Kept.
The interview described in the previous chapter touched Van Berg
deeply, but its close puzzled him. Under the influences of his
aroused feelings had his face expressed more than mere sympathy?
Had her strong intuition, that was like a second sight, interpreted
his heart more clearly than he had been able to understand it himself
as yet? Reason and judgement, his privy council, had already begun
to advise him to win if possible this unselfish maiden, who with
a divine alchemy transmuted her shadows into sunshine for others,
and often suggested the thought, if she can do this in sorrow, how
inexpressibly happy she might make you and your aged father and
mother if you could first find out in some way how to make her
happy.
Indeed, so clear a case did these counsellors make out, that conscience
added her authoritative voice also, and assured him that he would
be false to himself and his future did he not, to the utmost, avail
himself and his future did he not, to the utmost, avail himself
of the opportunity of winning one whose society from the first had
been an inspiration to better thoughts and better living.
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