Beulah - Page 169/348

"Beulah!"

She looked up at him proudly. Resentment had usurped the place of

grief. But she could not bear the earnest eyes that looked into hers

with such misty splendor; and, provoked at her own emotion, she

asked coldly: "What do you want, sir?"

He did not answer at once, but stood observing her closely. She felt

the hot blood rush into her usually cold, pale face, and, despite

her efforts to seem perfectly indifferent, her eyelids and lips

would tremble. His hand rested lightly on her shoulder, and he spoke

very gently.

"Child, have you been ill? You look wretched. What ails you,

Beulah?"

"Nothing, sir."

"That will not answer. Tell me, child, tell me!"

"I tell you I am as well as usual," cried she impatiently, yet her

voice faltered. She was struggling desperately with her own heart.

The return of his old manner, the winning tones of his voice,

affected her more than she was willing he should see.

"Beulah, you used to be truthful and candid."

"I am so still," she returned stoutly, though tears began to gather

in her eyes.

"No, child; already the world has changed you."

A shadow fell over his face, and the sad eyes were like clouded

stars.

"You know better, sir! I am just what I always was! It is you who

are so changed! Once you were my friend; my guardian! Once you were

kind, and guided me; but now you are stern, and bitter, and

tyrannical!" She spoke passionately, and tears, which she bravely

tried to force back, rolled swiftly down her cheeks. His light touch

on her shoulder tightened until it seemed a hand of steel, and, with

an expression which she never forgot, even in after years, he

answered: "Tyrannical! Not to you, child!"

"Yes, sir; tyrannical! cruelly tyrannical! Because I dared to think

and act for myself, you have cast off--utterly! You try to see how

cold and distant you can be; and show me that you don't care whether

I live or die, so long as I choose to be independent of you. I did

not believe that you could ever be so ungenerous!" She looked up at

him with swimming eyes. He smiled down into her tearful face, and

asked: "Why did you defy me, child?"

"I did not, sir, until you treated me worse than the servants; worse

than you did Charon even."

"How?"

"How, indeed! You left me in your own house without one word of

good-by, when you expected to be absent an indefinite time. Did you

suppose that I would remain there an hour after such treatment?"