Love is Triumphant Read Free Page A

life.
    Certainly Miss Draycott seemed to feel the same. There was a glow about her today that Rosina thought she understood.
    "Has he written again?" she whispered, and the teacher nodded joyfully.
    There were three other girls taking the lesson, so they were unable to talk further. After that Rosina had a geography lesson, but as soon as it was over she raced upstairs and knocked on Miss Draycott's door.
    "Come in."
    She went in to find the teacher standing in the tall window that led out onto the balcony. She had a letter clutched in her hand, and looked ecstatically happy.
    "And who was that good-looking young man I saw you with?" she teased.
    "Oh, you mean Sir John Crosby?" Rosina replied with a shrug. "He's not particularly good-looking." "Isn't he?"
    "Anyway, how could you tell from here? It's so far away."
    Miss Draycott laughed.
    "I could tell by the way you seemed so absorbed in him."
    "I was not," Rosina said, stung.
    She looked down at the ground, at the stones immediately beneath them, then the lawns leading to the woods and the stream. For a moment the height made her giddy.
    "Come back from the edge," Miss Draycott said. "These balcony rails aren't quite high enough for tall women like us."
    They drew back into the room and closed the window.
    "What did Mr Woodward have to say?" Rosina asked.
    "He's taking me out tonight. We're going to eat at a smart restaurant." She indicated two dresses hanging up, one blue, one pink. "Which of these do you think I should wear?"
    "Oh, I think the pink one."
    "Yes, I'm sure that Arthur will admire me in pink as I wore blue when I dined with him last week."
    "Mind you," Rosina added, "I don't think he'll mind what you wear. Not if he really loves you."
    "Oh he does love me, I know he does," Miss Draycott said at once. "And I love him with all my heart. I am hoping and praying that he will ask me to be his wife."
    "How thrilling that will be," Rosina replied. "When he's in Parliament you'll have to have a house in London. Then there will be parties, and theatres and all sorts of nice things to go to, every night. It will be very exciting." Miss Draycott smiled.
    "It will be very exciting to be with the man I love and who loves me," she answered.
    She spoke very softly, as if she was speaking to herself.
    Rosina was silent for a moment. She could not help thinking of Sir John's warning that Miss Draycott's lover would either need a wealthy patron or a wealthy wife.
    But he loved her, Rosina reassured herself. What could ambition matter beside true love?
    Miss Draycott was sighing happily, lost in the vision of herself as a bride.
    "I think I'll have my wedding dress made up in London," she said. "After all, the wedding is the most important day of a woman's life. I want my husband to remember me as being more beautiful than at any other time we have been together."
    "I'm sure he'll think so," Rosina said.
    Miss Draycott sighed.
    "I only wish I were rich," she said. "Then I could help Arthur in all sorts of ways."
    "Perhaps he'll win some money racing, or a relation will die and leave you a fortune," Rosina suggested.
    Miss Draycott spoke with sudden bitterness.
    "That only happens in books," she said. "In real life you struggle to keep your head above water, but without money you are likely to sink to the bottom and no one will even be sorry for you."
    Then she brightened again, for nothing could depress her for long when she was going to meet the man she adored.
    "Would you like to see his letter?" she asked eagerly.
    Rosina took the letter that had arrived that day, and read,
    'I will count the hours until we are together tonight. Unfortunately I have to go away tomorrow to visit some friends, but I'll just start counting the hours again, until I can see you.
    'I'm longing to see you tonight, and to tell you how much I love you. That will take me a very long time. Goodbye, my darling, and think of me until we meet.'
    "That is lovely," Rosina said. "It's the sort of thing I'd