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"I was thinking, Ann," he said slowly, "that it was a pity for Christa to be kept from dancing. She is young and light on her feet. God must have made her to dance." "Christa's well enough without it," said Ann, a little shortly. She thought more coldly of Christa since she had come up to a higher level herself. "Well, I only meant about Christa that I think I made a mistake," said Bart slowly.
After a while another thought came upon her with unexpected force. Christa's motive for taking to the religious life was only self-interest; her own motive was the same; and was not that the motive which she really supposed hitherto to actuate all religious people? Had she not, for instance, been fully convinced that self-interest was the sum and substance of Bart Toyner's religion?
She felt that the best way of ridding herself of uncomfortable thoughts about him was to be busy in performing all that he could reasonably require at her hands. It is just in the same way that many people rid themselves of thoughts about God. All that long day, while the sunlight fell pink through the haze, Ann worked at renovating her own life and Christa's.
"Yes," said Christa, without exhibiting much interest. Ann had been the deus ex machina of the house since Christa's babyhood. It never occurred to her that any power needed to interfere on behalf of Ann. "But if I shouldn't get back by daylight, you'll have to manage to say a word to David Brown. Tell him that I borrowed his canoe for a very special purpose.
As Ann bided her time and considered her own occupation and Christa's, she marvelled at the audacity of the promise which she had offered to give Bart, yet so awful was the question at stake that her only wish was that he had accepted it. At four o'clock in the afternoon she roused Christa and apportioned a certain bit of work to her.
It would not profit himself, but still he would win from her the promise concerning her future life and Christa's which she had offered him, and he would go that night and do all that a man could do to help the poor wretch to whom his heart went out with ever-increasing pity.
For all that, Ann was not sorry that Christa's eyelids should be red when David Brown was seen slowly lounging toward the window. He had not been to see them the day before; it was apparent from his air that he thought it was not quite the respectable thing to do to-day.
I am so frightened that is, so startled. Oh, Miss Rothesay, what shall I do?" and she looked appealingly to Olive. But between her and Miss Rothesay glided the young stranger. The bright colour paled from Christa's face her smile passed into a frown.
David giggled a little as he said it, betraying that he felt his words to be unusually personal. Ann wondered for a minute what could be the cause of this giggle, and then she returned to the subject of Christa's suffering. "I don't care about Christa." "The silly fellow!" thought Ann. She was six years older than he, and she felt herself to be twenty years older.
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