Page:The Fruit of the Tree (Wharton 1907).djvu/391

Rh Bessy laughed. “Ah, my dear, you knew that if you asked me the letter would never be sent!"

“Perhaps I did,” said Justine simply. “I was trying to help you against your will.”

“Well, you see the result.” Bessy laid a derisive touch on the letter. “Do you understand now whose fault it is if I am alone?”

Justine faced her steadily. “There is nothing in Mr. Amherst’s letter to make me change my opinion. I still think it lies with you to bring him back.”

Bessy raised a glittering face to her—all hardness and laughter. “Such modesty, my dear! As if I had a chance of succeeding where you failed!”

She sprang up, brushing the curls from her temples with a petulant gesture. “Don’t mind me if I’m cross—but I’ve had a dose of preaching from Maria Ansell, and I don’t know why my friends should treat me like a puppet without any preferences of my own, and press me upon a man who has done his best to show that he doesn’t want me. As a matter of fact, he and I are luckily agreed on that point too—and I’m afraid all the good advice in the world won’t persuade us to change our opinion!”

Justine held her ground. “If I believed that of either of you, I shouldn’t have written—I should not be pleading with you now— And Mr. Amherst doesn’t believe it either,” she added, after a pause, [ 375 ]