She started, then she came back a step. "I have not really talked over the plan of—of earning my way with her," and her voice fell a little. "Mrs. Dayton thought it best not to say anything until we had some certainty. She is going away soon. Her real companion comes next week."
He nodded that he understood the delicate charge. "And where is Mrs. Dayton?"
"She went to market, and to do various errands. I should like you to talk to her about it."
"Yes, I want to," he replied decisively.
Helen went upstairs and was gone quite a while. He was thinking of the bright, earnest, energetic girl, willing to work her way. He must plan it out with Mrs. Dayton. She was the one girl out of fifty who could rise above circumstances. Yet her aunt would be more than vexed, positively angry.
Mrs. Van Dorn experienced a curious pang, when the girl's face brilliant with a definite emotion, flashed upon her with ardor in every line. What had moved her so? The eyes were luminous, the voice freighted with a new depth.
"Yes," she answered stiffly. "I must see this young man—he is young, isn't he? It seems to me he has been making a long call."
"Oh, we had so much to talk about, my summer here and all its pleasures, and the knowledge. Why, I told him I felt as if I had been at school all the time, I had learned so many things from you, and that you——"
She paused and flushed, wondering if the talk had been just right in the more delicate sense.
"That I was cross and queer, and full of whims——"