"Thank you. You might give me a written recommendation. See how handsome Miss Bryant’s face looks against that golden pillow."
"Yes; it is a proof of your hard heart that you withstand her."
"I don’t withstand her. You have no idea how much I enjoyed an afternoon I had with her at the Fair last week; but Jack was remarkably short with me that evening, and I fancied I had trespassed on his preserves."
"Not a bit of it. He must be a dog in the manger."
"Why, I’m very sure he is hard hit in that direction."
"Oh, where are a man’s eyes, I wonder! I haven’t been here very long, but long enough to discover the truth."
"I suppose you want me to ask you what truth?"
"No, I don’t, my dear." Mrs. Page reopened her book.
"You are not hinting at—at—Mrs. Van Tassel?" Gorham spoke in a hushed tone.
"Just observe for yourself," said Hilda sententiously.
Mrs. Page looked up, wondering at this severity. "Why, if you please? You surely haven’t an idea that that young creature is going to sacrifice the rest of her life to a memory of duty done?"
"But Hilda, that is repugnant!" Page rose suddenly, and his sister’s gaze followed him as he moved away. It was very unusual for him to show so much feeling. "Wouldn’t it be a strange, strange thing if after waiting all these years Gorham should love at last and love hopelessly?" She banished the query with a sigh. Sober second thought assured her that her brother had not meant more than he said. The idea that Jack might wish to marry his father’s widow was distasteful to him, and that was all.
Page approached Mildred, little realizing how indefensible she considered it that he had not done so some minutes previous. She was too glad of his presence, however, to punish him. It would never do for Jack to come home and suppose that she had not been holding court.
"What beautiful evenings you have in Chicago," he began. "May I take this chair?" drawing one near the hammock in which she was sitting against a nest of pillows, her foot touching the floor gently as she rocked.
"Yes, I never tire of seeing the moonlight on the water as it is shining to-night. When I was a little girl it was a great treat to me to be allowed to spend a summer evening on this piazza, and I enjoy it scarcely less now."