"What is it now?" I inquired, rather querulously. "What do you want? Come to the point, I beg, without further delay."
She turned to a mirror, and with a brush that lay on the bureau pushed back the hair that was half tumbling over her face—hair that was light and yet not blonde; hair that matched well with her blue-gray eyes and her regular features.
"It is not so easy as you may think to detail these things," she said, when her face was again turned toward me. "I have to depend on myself for my living, but I hate to assume the guise of a beggar. Still, as I told you in the first place, my purse is practically empty. There are many articles needed if I am to go with you, that I would not otherwise want at this season of the year. They will cost money. I—"
"All that was settled in my letter to-day," I interrupted. "Have you not received it?"
"Yes, I received the letter, and I want to thank you for its kindness of tone. As I understand it, you offer to advance me what I need to prepare for the journey. This, I presume, is to be deducted from my salary, which under ordinary circumstances, would be quite acceptable. But, as I told you, I have another to support, and I have to rely upon my weekly stipend for that purpose."
For a moment I doubted the girl. Was she after all an adventuress who meant to get what she could in advance, and disappear when the time of departure came? No man likes to be made the victim of a schemer. I do not care any more for a few dollars than the average of my fellows, but the thought of having them cheated out of me is not pleasant to contemplate. I imagined my chagrin if I should go sailing off to the Caribbean with the reflection that I had been the victim of a smooth-tongued woman—I, who had been through the same mill, and ought to have learned something.
"I see my suggestion does not please you," came in low tones from my companion. "I was a little afraid it would not. I am such a stranger that I cannot wonder if you distrust me. Well, I have no desire to influence you. I have told you my situation."
Rousing myself from my reverie I looked earnestly into the fair young face.
"Marjorie," I began; "may I call you 'Marjorie?'"
"As you please."