I echoed it, parted from my aunt,and went lightly downstairs, mounted, and rode away.There was greater reason than before to do what I had resolved to do.
How well I recollect the wintry ride!The frozen particles of ice,brushed from the blades of grass by the wind,and borne across my face;the hard clatter of the horse’s hoofs,beating a tune upon the ground; the stiff-tilled soil;the snowdrift, lightly eddying in the chalk-pit as the breeze ruffled it;the smoking team with the waggon of old hay,stopping to breathe on the hill-top,and shaking their bells musically;the whitened slopes and sweeps of Down-land lying against the dark sky,as if they were drawn on a huge slate!
I found Agnes alone.The little girls had gone to their own homes now,and she was alone by the fire, reading.She put down her book on seeing me come in;and having welcomed me as usual,took her work-basket and sat in one of the old-fashioned windows.
I sat beside her on the window-seat,and we talked of what I was doing,and when it would be done,and of the progress I had made since my last visit.Agnes was very cheerful;and laughingly predicted that I should soon become too famous to be talked to, on such subjects.
‘So I make the most of the present time, you see,’ said Agnes, ‘and talk to you while I may.’
As I looked at her beautiful face,observant of her work, she raised her mild clear eyes,and saw that I was looking at her.
‘You are thoughtful today, Trotwood!’
‘Agnes, shall I tell you what about?I came to tell you.’
She put aside her work,as she was used to do when we were seriously discussing anything;and gave me her whole attention.
‘My dear Agnes, do you doubt my being true to you?’
‘No!’ she answered, with a look of astonishment.
‘Do you doubt my being what I always have been to you?’
‘No!’ she answered, as before.
‘Do you remember that I tried to tell you,when I came home, what a debt of gratitude I owed you,dearest Agnes, and how fervently I felt towards you?’
‘I remember it,’ she said, gently, ‘very well.’
‘You have a secret,’ said I. ‘Let me share it, Agnes.’
She cast down her eyes, and trembled.
‘I could hardly fail to know,even if I had not heard--but from other lips than yours,Agnes, which seems strange--that there is someone upon whom you have bestowed the treasure of your love. Do not shut me out of what concerns your happiness so nearly!If you can trust me, as you say you can,and as I know you may, let me be your friend,your brother, in this matter, of all others!’
With an appealing, almost a reproachful, glance,she rose from the window;and hurrying across the room as if without knowing where,put her hands before her face,and burst into such tears as smote me to the heart.
And yet they awakened something in me,bringing promise to my heart. Without my knowing why,these tears allied themselves with the quietly sad smile which was so fixed in my remembrance, and shook me more with hope than fear or sorrow.
‘Agnes!Sister!Dearest!What have I done?’
‘Let me go away, Trotwood. I am not well.I am not myself. I will speak to you by and by--another time.I will write to you. Don’t speak to me now. Don’t!don’t!’
I sought to recollect what she had said,when I had spoken to her on that former night,of her affection needing no return.It seemed a very world that I must search through in a moment.‘Agnes, I cannot bear to see you so,and think that I have been the cause. My dearest girl,dearer to me than anything in life, if you are unhappy,let me share your unhappiness.If you are in need of help or counsel,let me try to give it to you.If you have indeed a burden on your heart,let me try to lighten it. For whom do I live now,Agnes, if it is not for you!’
‘Oh, spare me!I am not myself!Another time!’ was all I could distinguish.
Was it a selfish error that was leading me away?Or, having once a clue to hope,was there something opening to me that I had not dared to think of?
‘I must say more. I cannot let you leave me so!For Heaven’s sake, Agnes,let us not mistake each other after all these years,and all that has come and gone with them!I must speak plainly.If you have any lingering thought that I could envy the happiness you will confer; that I could not resign you to a dearer protector, of your own choosing; that I could not, from my removed place, be a contented witness of your joy; dismiss it, for I don’t deserve it!I have not suffered quite in vain.You have not taught me quite in vain.There is no alloy of self in what I feel for you.’
She was quiet now. In a little time,she turned her pale face towards me,and said in a low voice, broken here and there, but very clear:
‘I owe it to your pure friendship for me,Trotwood--which, indeed, I do not doubt--to tell you,you are mistaken. I can do no more.If I have sometimes, in the course of years,wanted help and counsel, they have come to me.If I have sometimes been unhappy,the feeling has passed away.If I have ever had a burden on my heart,it has been lightened for me. If I have any secret,it is--no new one; and is--not what you suppose.I cannot reveal it, or divide it.It has long been mine, and must remain mine.’
‘Agnes!Stay!A moment!’
She was going away, but I detained her.I clasped my arm about her waist.‘In the course of years!’ ‘It is not a new one!’ New thoughts and hopes were whirling through my mind,and all the colours of my life were changing.
‘Dearest Agnes!Whom I so respect and honour--whom I so devotedly love!When I came here today,I thought that nothing could have wrested this confession from me.I thought I could have kept it in my bosom all our lives,till we were old. But, Agnes,if I have indeed any new-born hope that I may ever call you something more than Sister, widely different from Sister!--’
Her tears fell fast;but they were not like those she had lately shed,and I saw my hope brighten in them.