We were very busy the next day with some accounts, and said nothing about the evening until lunch time. I had brought mine. Then I heard that Mr. Le Moyne was one of the partners in a large fur-trading company and also in the new copper mining in Northern Michigan, that was being rapidly developed. In his youth he had fled from France to Canada in the time of the Huguenot persecution, and had become deeply interested in business later on. I was very enthusiastic.
"Yes, I was glad to have you see him. Such men are worth knowing."
It seemed quite absurd that I should ever have the opportunity of knowing much about him. Men of his stamp were not frequent visitors in our provincial town.
If I had been enraptured myself I have no word to describe Ruth's delight. After all, we were very simple children, though our reading had broadened our minds, and I had found before this that Mr. Gaynor, indifferent as he seemed to what is called culture, was a very well-informed man on general topics and shrewd in his observations. I did not know then that education was much more widely diffused at the East.
The outcome of this was a proposal I could not have imagined. Mr. Le Moyne dropped in the rough little office several times and we had a few suggestive talks about business which seemed rather for Mr. Harris than for me. One day my father was called into council, which amazed me, for when he went out he gave me such a mysterious look.
"We'll knock off now," said Mr. Harris. "There's nothing to suffer, and I have a plan to lay before you, an opportunity that doesn't happen more than once in a lifetime, and I hope you will take it. Your father has given his consent."
The offer was from Mr. Le Moyne, who wanted what would be called a private secretary nowadays, perhaps a little more. With his perfect health he had been seized with a mysterious eye trouble, a dimness of vision that nothing could cure, but that rest and carefulness would assist in putting off the evil day, and that he might never be totally blind. He wanted a young intelligent person who would be pleased to travel, who would be companionable, who could read to him, write his private letters, who was trusty, honest and reliable, and who had the enthusiasms of youth. He would give me a good salary and put me in the way of making a fortune if I stayed with him. But we would make our bargain first for two years.
I was absolutely speechless from surprise. My brain was in a whirl. I was glad to have Mr. Harris go on pointing out the advantages, though I am afraid I could not have told one of them afterward.
"Well?" presently, in an inquiring tone.
"I am so confused," I began. "Of course it is a splendid chance, only I had never thought of going away—"