She had behind
her garishness a gift for sympathy and a keen intuition, delicacy, and
allusiveness. She knew what to say and what to leave unsaid, when her
heart was moved.
"My darling," she said now, "you are not quite happy; but that is because
you don't allow yourself to get well. You've never recovered from your
attack last summer; and you won't, until you come out into the world
again and see people. This autumn you ought to have been at Homburg or at
Aix, where you'd take a little cure of waters and a great deal of cure of
people. You were born to bask in friendship and the sun, and to draw from
the world as much as you deserve, a little from many, for all you give in
return. Because, dearest, you are a very agreeable person, with enough
wit and humanity to make it worth the world's while to conspire to make
you do what will give it most pleasure, and let yourself get most--and
that's why I've come."
"What a person of importance I am!" answered Hylda, with a laugh that was
far from mirthful, though she caught the plump, wrinkled little hand of
the Duchess and pressed it.
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