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"Dream, or nightmare, or what you will, you had better get all you can out of it before you break it," said Sepia. "You seem to think it worth keeping!" yawned Hesper. Sepia smiled, with her face to the glass, in which she saw the face of her cousin with her eyes on the fire; but she made no answer. Hesper went on. "Ah!" she said, "your story is not mine. You are free; I am a slave.
It was not merely that she saw in Hesper a grand creature, and lovely to look upon, or that one so much her superior in position showed such a liking for herself; she saw in her one she could help, one at least who sorely needed help, for she seemed to know nothing of what made life worth having one who had done, and must yet be capable of doing, things degrading to the humanity of womanhood.
They watch the red rays of sunset flaming through the columns of the leafy hall, and flaring on its fretted rafters of entangled boughs; they see the stars come out, and Hesper gleam, an eye of brightness, among dewy branches; the moon walks silver-footed on the velvet tree-tops, while they sleep beside the camp-fires; fresh morning wakes them to the sound of birds and scent of thyme and twinkling of dewdrops on the grass around.
The time, the call of the hour, the need of her nation, the obligation to her dead father all these things stood in her way. How had she felt, were this that engaging stranger who had called himself Hesper, urging her to be glad with him!
Redmain has proposed for your hand, Hesper," she said, in a tone as indifferent in her turn as if she were mentioning the appointment of a new clergyman to the family living.
There was something there almost like humility, though Hesper was not able to read it as such. He lifted his head, and did not avoid her gaze. "You are wondering, Hesper," he said, "that I do not respond with more pleasure. To tell you the truth, I have come through so much that I am almost afraid to expect the fruition of any good.
Hesper shrunk, almost with horror, certainly with disgust, from the idea of having anything to do with her husband as an invalid. When she had the choice of her company, she said, she would not choose his. Mewks was sent for at once, but did not arrive before the patient had had some experience of Mary's tendance; nor, after he came, was she altogether without opportunity of ministering to him.
"Why do you not give it up at once then?" asked Hesper. "Because I like serving the customers. They were my father's customers; and I have learned so much from having to wait on them!" "Well, now," said Hesper, with a rush for the goal, "if you will come to me, I will make you comfortable; and you shall do just as much or as little as you please." "What will your maid think?" suggested Mary.
"Oh, indeed!" dropped from Folter's lips with an indescribable expression. "What can be done?" said Hesper, angrily. "There can be no time for anything." "If only we had the stuff!" said Mary. "That shade doesn't suit your complexion. It ought to be much, much darker in fact, a different color altogether."
"Perhaps that the honorable shopkeeper and the mean nobleman will one day change places." "Oh," thought Hesper, "that is why the lower classes take so to religion!" But what she said was: "Oh, yes, I dare say! But everything then will be so different that it won't signify. When we are all angels, nobody will care who is first, and who is last. I'm sure, for one, it won't be anything to me."
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