"Will you permit me to be present at the interview, mamma?"
"By no means!" exclaimed Mrs. St. John, with asperity. "The story that no doubt will be unfolded to me is not for ears such as yours. I will tell as much to you as I deem necessary for you to know; let that suffice."
But the young beauty and heiress was not to be appeased. She made up her mind to see the girl at all hazards when she should come; but much to the surprise of both mother and daughter, the girl did not put in an appearance.
That day passed, as did also the next and the next. A week went by and lengthened into a fortnight, and still the girl came not.
"You see, my dear, her statement was false!" cried Mrs. St. John, triumphantly. "She feared that we would investigate her story, and she was no doubt a fraud. If you believe all those strange stories you hear, you will have enough to do. She was no doubt looking for hush-money, and when I did not offer to give it to her, you see she did not return."
This seemed quite the truth, as Florence saw it.
How wrong it had been to even suspect him! She made up her mind that if he should broach the subject before the time she had named, she might not refuse his pleading.
She was expecting him that very evening. He came at last, looking so handsome, so buoyant, that the girl's heart went out to him at once, as the hearts of so many women had done.
He brought her some beautiful violets, and he knew he had as good as won her when he saw her fasten them in the bodice of her dress.
Florence St. John was sitting in a velvet arm-chair but a short distance away. Her beautiful face was softened, more so than he had ever seen it before, the smile on her lips was sweeter--the proud, half-defiant, flashing loveliness seemed all at once to grow gentle.
He no longer seemed quite sure of her. It was Florence St. John's silence that alarmed him, perhaps.
"I wish," he cried, "that I knew in what words and in what fashion other men make love."
"Does not your own heart teach you?" asked the young girl, suddenly.
"Yes," he answered; "but I am not sure that the teachings are of the right kind. You have not answered me, and it must be _my_ fault, either because I have not expressed myself properly or that I have not made myself understood. Florence, I want you--with my whole heart I ask you--I want you to become my wife."