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"Nay, what has she, Genta?" "I am sure some one has been telling her something. She has asked me to-night if she had not once a sister, and if her name were not Anegay." The exclamation in reply was more forcible than elegant. But that night, as Belasez lay in bed, through half-closed eyes she saw her mother enter and hold the lantern to her face.
The confession of the Countess is historical. She took the whole blame upon herself. "Guardami ben'! Ben' son', ben' son' Beatrice." Dante. "Well, now, this is provoking!" "What is the matter, wife?" And Abraham looked up from a bale of silk which he was packing. "Why, here has Genta been and taken the fever; and there is not a soul but me to go and nurse her."
That damsel lay awake for a considerable time. She soon made up her mind to get as much as she could out of her cousin Genta. It was evident that a catechising ordeal awaited her, to the end of discovering a supposed Christian lover; but feeling her conscience quite clear on that count, Belasez was only disturbed at the possible revelation of her change of faith.
Genta was the daughter of Abraham's brother Moss. "Nothing that would do much harm," said Licorice, but in rather a doubtful tone. "Beside, Genta can hold her peace." "Ay, if she choose. But suppose she did not? She knows, does she not, about Anegay?" "Hush! Well, yes something. But not what would do most mischief." "What, about her marriage with "
They heard, through neighbours, that Genta was going through all the phases of a tedious illness, and that Licorice was a most attentive and valuable nurse. At the end of those ten days, Delecresse came in with an order for some of the exquisite broidery which only Belasez could execute.
"Had I not?" "I never heard of one." "Think, Genta I was she not called Anegay?" Genta's shake of the head was decided enough to settle any question, but Belasez fancied she caught a momentary flash in her eyes which was by no means a negation. But Belasez did not hear a few sentences that were uttered before Genta left the house. "Aunt Licorice, what has Belasez got in her head?"
"She has been asking questions of Genta. But she has got hold of the wrong pattern she fancies Anegay was her sister." "Does she?" replied Abraham, in a tone of sorrowful tenderness. "There's less harm in her thinking that, than if she knew the truth. Genta showed great good sense: she professed to know nothing at all about it."
"Delecresse," she said, the first time she was alone with her brother, "had we ever a sister?" "Never, to my knowledge," said Delecresse, looking as if he wondered what had put that notion into her head. Evidently he knew nothing. "Genta," she said, "tell me when my sister died." "Thy sister, Belasez?" Genta's expression was one of most innocent perplexity. "Hadst thou ever a sister?"
It made mine boil to behold it." "Forbid it, God of our fathers!" fervently ejaculated Abraham. "Licorice, dost thou think the child has ever guessed " "Hush, husband, lest she should chance to awake. Guessed! No, and she never shall." Belasez's ears, it is unnecessary to say, were strained to catch every sound. What was she not to guess? "Art thou sure that Genta knows nothing?"
Genta must be nursed: and I cannot bring infection home. And after all, the girl is thine, not mine. Thou must take thine own way. But I shall bid her good-bye for ever: for I have no hope of seeing her again." Abraham made no answer, unless his troubled eyes and quivering lips did so for him. But the night closed in upon a very quiet chamber, owing to the absence of Licorice.
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