Queenie's Whim, Volume 3 by Rosa Nouchette Carey

"One half our cares and woes / Exist but in our thoughts; / And lightly fall the rest on those / Who with them wrestle not. / The feather scarcely feels the gale / Which bursts the seaman's strongest sail. " / _C. Wesley._

Things went on tranquilly for the next few days. Garth looked a / little shame-faced when he next saw his sister, but he knew her too / well to fear that an unready confidence would be solicited. Langley / never asked to know people's secrets. If they reposed them in her / they found her trustworthy and sympathizing. She had eased her / conscience by warning her brother, and now her duty was discharged / her heart was full of forebodings for their old friend Dora; and a / feeling that was almost akin to disappointment troubled her when she / thought of Garth's changed fealty. "_Toujours fidele_" had been her / motto for him as well as for herself, and yet, of the two girls her / heart clave more to Queenie. Garth had no intention of reposing / confidence in any one. He hid his feelings as well as he could, / assuming at times an uneasy gravity that did not belong to him; but / the usual symptoms were not lacking. He became enamored of his own / company, addicted to solitary walks and an over-much use of / meditation, was somewhat absent and desultory in his conversation, / and haunted the lane with his cigar at all manner of unseemly hours. / Queenie was not unmindful of this change in Garth. It may be doubted / whether women are ever entirely unconscious of even a hidden passion; / trifles are significant in such cases. A certain subtle change in / Garth's tone, a hesitation, nay, a reluctance in speaking her name, a / swift unguarded look, brought a sweet conviction to her mind: Dora / must be forgotten. A rosy flush of hope, bright as her own youth, / dawned slowly upon her.