"It is like being a person
under a curse!"
At this Dowie broke down openly and let her tears run fast. "No,
no! You mustn't say it or think it, my dearie!" she wept. "It
might call down a blight on it. You a young thing like a garden
flower! And someone--somewhere--God bless him--that some day'll
glory in it--and you'll glory too. Somewhere he is--somewhere!"
"Let none of them look at me!" cried Robin. "I loather them, too.
I hate everything--and everybody--but you two--just you two."
Mademoiselle took her in her arms this time when she sobbed again.
Mademoiselle knew how at this hour it seemed to her that all her
world was laid bare forever more. When the worst of the weeping
was over and she lay quiet, but for the deep catching breaths
which lifted her breast in slow, childish shudders at intervals,
she held Mademoiselle Valle's hand and looked at her with a faint,
wry smile.
"You were too kind to tell me what a stupid little fool I was when
I talked to you about taking a place in an office!" she said. "I
know now that you would not have allowed me to do the things I
was so sure I could do. It was only my ignorance and conceit. I
can't answer advertisements. Any bad person can say what they choose
in an advertisement. If that woman had advertised, she would have
described Helene. And there was no Helene." One of the shuddering
catches of her breath broke in here.
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