He put his arms round her and tried to raise her, when she lifted up her head and stood up.
"Tell me what has happened, Gertrude," he urged; "is it grief for the loss of the little one? I entreat you to be calm--you will make yourself ill."
She had not shed any tears, she only looked deathly pale and her hands, which rested in his, were cold as ice.
She clung to him as she had never done before.
"It will be all right again," she whispered, "now I am with you."
"Were you afraid? Has anything happened to you?" he inquired, tenderly.
"Yes," she said, hastily, "a little while ago I chanced to hear a few words mamma was saying to Aunt Pauline--they came up from Jenny's--I suppose they did not think I was here--I don't know. Mamma was still crying very much about the baby and--then she said Jenny must go away--she must have a change--this apathy was so dangerous. You know she has not spoken a word for three days--and--I must accompany her on a long journey--so I--" She stopped and bit her quivering lips.
"So you might forget me if possible?" he inquired, gravely.
He put his hand under her chin and looked into her eyes. She did not reply, but he read the confirmation of his suspicion in her tearful eyes.
"Are they so anxious to be rid of me? Is their dislike so strong, Gertrude? And you?" He felt how she trembled.
"Oh!" she cried with a passion which made Linden start, "Oh, I--do you know there are moments when something seems to take possession of me with the power of a demon--I am swept away by the force of my wrath--I--I do not know what I say and do--I am ashamed now--I ought to have been calm--they cannot separate us, no--they cannot. Now mamma is lying on the sofa in her room and Sophie has gone for the doctor. Ah, Frank, I have borne it all so patiently all these long years--is it so great a sin that my long suppressed feelings should have burst out at last, that my self-control should have given way for once? I was violent--I have always thought I was so calm--those words that I heard seemed to sweep me away like a storm--I don't know what reproaches I may have spoken against my mother. And to-day, just to-day, when they have carried away the only sunbeam that was in this house for me!"