“You are more willing to accept money from me now than you were once before,” laughed Miss Houghton.
“That was unearned; this is for the bettering of God’s poor.”
“Your pride struck me as strange then. I understand it better now.”
“And appreciate its motive, I hope,” said Elsie wistfully.
“Indeed I do, my dear child; and if the pride of the world had a similar foundation there would not be such a war of caste as afflicts society to-day.”
Fearful from Elsie’s flushed face and her knowledge of Helen Mason’s opposition to Herbert’s marriage that in her last words she had unwittingly trenched upon delicate ground, she slipped an arm around Elsie’s waist, saying: “Tell me, my dear, why did you send Herbert away?”
It was a difficult matter for Elsie to summon self-command enough to reply; but with a face from which the color quickly receded she faltered: “We differed so much in our views that there was no reconciling them.”
“Then Helen was not wholly responsible?”
“No, she was not responsible at all. Mr. Lynn’s education and mine had been from such widely-different standpoints that the wonder is our ideas ever came into conflict. It has always been a mystery to me why Mr. Lynn ever chose to think——”
“It is a wonder,” interrupted Alice Houghton dryly as she bent down and kissed Elsie’s cheek. “I wouldn’t mourn, my dear, for a man who couldn’t pocket a few whims to make me happy.”