and with a smile, too. Oh, it is a rich nature, an ideal nature. I
think we can trust her now."

I did not like to discuss Gilbertine, even with Dorothy, so I said
nothing. But she was too full of her theme to stop. I think she wished
to unburden her mind once and for ever of all that had disturbed it.

"Our aunt's death," she continued, "will be a sort of emancipation for
her. I don't think you, or any one out of our immediate household, can
realise the control which Aunt Hannah exerted over every one who came
within her daily influence. It would have been the same had she
occupied a dependent position instead of being the wealthy autocrat she
was. In her cold nature dwelt an imperiousness which no one could
withstand. You know how her friends, some of them as rich and
influential as herself, bowed to her will and submitted to her
interference. What, then, could you expect from two poor girls entirely
dependent upon her for everything they enjoyed? Gilbertine, with all her
spirit, could not face Aunt Hannah's frown, while I studied to have no
wishes. Had this been otherwise, had we found a friend instead of a
tyrant in the woman who took us into her home, Gilbertine might have
gained more control over her feelings. It was the necessity she felt of
smothering her natural impulses, and of maintaining in the house and
before the world an appearance of satisfaction in her position as
bride-elect, which caused her to fall into such extremes of despondency
and deep despair. Her self-respect was shocked. She felt she was a
living lie, and hated herself in consequence.

"You may think I did wrong not to tell her of your affection for myself,
especially after what you whispered into my ear that night at the
theatre. I did do wrong; I see it now. She was really a stronger woman
than I thought, and we might all have been saved the horrors which have
befallen us had I acted with more firmness at that time. But I was weak
and frightened. I held you back and let her go on deceiving herself,
which meant deceiving Mr. Sinclair, too. I thought, when she found
herself really married and settled in her own home, she would find it
easier to forget, and that soon, perhaps very soon, all this would seem
like a troubled dream to her. And there was reason for this hope on my
part. She showed a woman's natural interest in her outfit and the plans
for her new house, but when she heard you were to be Mr. Sinclair's best
man every feminine ins