"
"Would what?"
"Do as I said."
"But what?"
"Make him repent it."
With the words, Miss Yolland broke into a second fit of laughter,
and, turning from Hesper, went, with a kind of loitering,
strolling pace toward the door, glancing round more than once,
each time with a fresh bubble rather than ripple in her laughter.
Whether it was all nonsensical merriment, or whether the author
of laughter without fun, Beelzebub himself, was at the moment
stirring in her, Hesper could not have told; as it was, she sat
staring after her, unable even to think. Just as she reached the
door, however, she turned quickly, and, with the smile of a
hearty, innocent child, or something very like it, ran back to
Hesper, threw her arms round her, and said:
"There, now! I've done for you what I could: I have made you
forget the odious man for a moment. I was curious to know whether
I could not make a bride forget her bridegroom. The other thing
is too easy."
"What other thing?"
"To make a bridegroom forget his bride, of course, you silly
child!--But there I am, off again! when really it is time to be
serious, and come to the only important point in the matter.--In
what shade of purity do you think of ascending the funeral pyre?
--In absolute white?--or rose-tinged?--or cream-colored!--or gold-
suspect?--Eh, happy bride?"
As she ceased, she turned her head away, pulled out her
handkerchief, and whimpered a little.
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