Attempt > Volume 10

12 The A ttempt.
emotions, and Barbara was quite content with things as
they were. It was such a happiness just to be near him,
to be allowed to tend him and care for him, and get the
mute thanks of his grateful eyes, that she began to think
that if she might only continue to be with him, to be a
sister to him, that was all she would ask of happiness. She
would put away those other possibilities which had disturbed
their intercourse, and be a sister to him as she had begun by
being. She had a right to be that, and she would wish for
nothing more. She began to picture to herself a life of this
kind, in which she should always be near him, hearing his
voice and resting in his sympathy, and satisfied with that
inner spiritual nearness which no one could take from her ;
and she came to the conclusion that such a life would be
both a possible and a happy one for her—if only Alaster
could be brought to see it too. And Alaster should marry
Nancy (she was quite content that he should do that, she
thought), and Nancy should be the pet and darling of
them both, and they would all be happy together. It was
a pretty picture she drew before her mind's eye, and per¬
haps not an unattainable one, if all three could but have
been brave enough to face the tinith, and be content with
what it brought them. That was the one radical defect
in Barbara's scheme, that she founded it on a lie. She
founded it on professions of love en Alaster's part towards
Nancy, which were not true, and so the scheme would not
hold together. Had she been brave enough to resolve
that they two, she and Alaster, should tell Nancy the
simple truth, I think her scheme might have worked, and
her pretty vision might have become a reality, but she
could not make up her mind to that as yet. By-and-bye,
perhaps, she might learn better.
CHAPTER XXVII.
" Barbara's final decision."
Nancy was quite happy too in those spring days, every
one of Avhich seemed to bring new strength and life to
Alaster. He was so kind and gentle and tender to them
all; so specially, wistfully tender sometimes to her, that
the thought that his heart had gone from her never crossed
her mind. She rejoiced in his recovery, and in the open¬
ing summer, just as the lambs and the little birds do, in
the warm bright sunshine, who gambol and sing just