She knew her own heart
too well to fear that any jealousy might mingle with her new
apprehensions. It was understood between Bernard and Helen that they
were too good friends to tamper with the silences and edging proximities
of lovemaking. She knew, too, the simply human, not masculine, interest
which Mr. Bernard took in Elsie; he had been frank with Helen, and more
than satisfied her that with all the pity and sympathy which overflowed
his soul, when he thought of the stricken girl, there mingled not one
drop of such love as a youth may feel for a maiden.
It may help the reader to gain some understanding of the anomalous nature
of Elsie Veneer, if we look with Helen into Mr. Bernard's opinions and
feelings with reference to her, as they had shaped themselves in his
consciousness at the period of which we are speaking.
At first he had been impressed by her wild beauty, and the contrast of
all her looks and ways with those of the girls around her. Presently a
sense of some ill-defined personal element, which half-attracted and
half-repelled those who looked upon her, and especially those on whom she
looked, began to make itself obvious to him, as he soon found it was
painfully sensible to his more susceptible companion, the lady-teacher.
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