"There is just one thing for us to do, Della--or rather, for us not to do. We must not drive Margaret away from us. She has full right to marry the man she loves, of course, and if--if we are too censorious, it will result only in our losing her altogether. It isn't what we want to do, but what we must do. We must accept him--or lose her. I--I'm afraid I forgot myself at first, last night," went on Frank, hurriedly, "and said some pretty harsh things. I didn't realize _what_ I was saying until I saw the look on his face. McGinnis is a straightforward, manly young fellow--we must not forget that, Della."
"But think of his po-position," moaned Mrs. Merideth.
"I know," he said. "But we must do our best to remedy that. I shall advance him and increase his pay at once, of course, and eventually he will become one of the firm, if Margaret--marries him."
"How can you take it so calmly, Frank," she sobbed. "You don't seem to care at all!"
Frank Spencer's lips parted, then closed again. Perhaps it was just as well, after all, that she should not know just how much he did--care.
"It may not be myself I'm thinking of," he said at last, quietly. "I want Margaret--happy." And he turned away.
Margaret was not happy, however, as the days passed. In spite of everybody's effort to act as if everything was as usual, nobody succeeded in doing it; and at last Margaret announced her determination to go back to the Mill House. She agreed, however, to call it a "visit," for Mrs. Merideth had cried tragically:
"But, Margaret, dear, if we are going to lose you altogether by and by, surely you will give us all your time now that you can!"
Bobby McGinnis wondered sometimes that summer why he was not happier. Viewed from the standpoint of an outsider, he surely had enough to make any man happy. He was young, strong, and in a position of trust and profit. He was, moreover, engaged to the girl he loved, and that girl was everything that was good and beautiful, and he saw her almost every day. All this Bobby knew--and still he wondered.
He saw a good deal of Margaret these days. Their engagement had come to be an accepted fact, and the first flurry of surprise and comment had passed. The Mill House, with Patty in charge, was steadily progressing. Margaret had taken up her work again with fresh zest, but, true to her promise to Mrs. Merideth, she spent many a day, and sometimes two or three days at Hilcrest. All this, however, did not interfere with Bobby's seeing her--for he, too, went to Hilcrest in accordance with Margaret's express wishes.