you_ go--" And she buried her face
in her fur, so that Mr. Twist still couldn't see it.

"Now that's enough about the cat," he said, speaking very firmly.
"You're coming with me." And he stooped and picked her up, cat and all,
and set her on her feet.

Then he saw her face.

"Good God, Anna-Rose!" he exclaimed.

"I did try not to show you," she said; and she added, taking shelter
behind her pride and looking at him as defiantly as she could out of
eyes almost closed up, "but you mustn't suppose just because I happen
to--to seem as if I'd been crying that I--that I'm minding anything."

"Oh no," said Mr. Twist, who at sight of her face had straightway
forgotten about himself and his longings and his proposals, and only
knew that he must comfort Christopher. "Oh no," he said, looking at her
aghast, "I'm not supposing we're minding anything, either of us."

He took her by the arm. Comfort Christopher; that's what he had got to
do. Get rid as quickly as possible of that look of agony--yes, it was
downright agony--on her face.

He thought he guessed what she was thinking and feeling; he thought--he
was pretty sure--she was thinking and feeling that her beloved Columbus
had gone from her, and gone to a stranger, in a day, in a few hours, to
a stranger she had never even seen, never even heard of; that her
Columbus had had secrets from her, had been doing things behind her
back; that she had had perfect faith and trust in her twin, and now was
tasting the dreadful desolation of betrayal; and he also guessed that
she must be sick with fears,--for he knew how responsible she felt, how
seriously she took the charge of her beautiful twin--sick with fear
about this unknown man, sick with the feeling of helplessness, of
looking on while Columbus rushed into what might well be, for all any
one knew, a deadly mess-up of her happiness.

Well, he could reason her out of most of this, he felt. Certainly he
could reassure her about Elliott, who did inspire one with confidence,
who did seem, anyhow outwardly, a very fitting mate for Anna-Felicitas.
But he was aghast at the agony on her face. All that he guessed she was
thinking and feeling didn't justify it. It was unreasonable to suffer so
violently on account of what was, after all, a natural happening. But
however unreasonable it was, she was suffering.

He took her by the arm. "You come right along with me," he said; and led
her out of the yard, away from Li Koo and the kitch