“Because if he is everything to you, I shall put into execution a plan I have; otherwise, I might do something else. You see, he has no future, my child, unless some one uses influence to give him a start. I would rather he were a Marylander, but he cannot help it that he had the misfortune to be born elsewhere,” he added, laughing. “Now, the question is: How far shall I use that influence?”
Lettice’s answer came in muffled tones from under the robes, “Use every particle you possess.”
And her father, with a laugh that turned into a sigh, returned: “So let it be, my love. Now don’t ask me any more questions, but let time decide how it will turn out.” And Lettice was quite content at this.
The next thing they were all settled down in Baltimore, and Mr. Baldwin was filling the place Lettice’s father had always intended for Jamie, while Lettice realized that this new confidential clerk was obliged to stop at the house very frequently upon one pretext or another. So the winter promised to be a very pleasant one.
The report of the great battle of New Orleans, with the news of peace, came to end all controversies over the war, and the young people of Lettice’s acquaintance organized a grand sleighing party in honor of the good news.
Did she ever forget that night? Under the gleaming stars, well muffled up from the winter’s cold, she did not feel the sharp, frosty air. From her quilted hood of silk bordered with swansdown, her fair little face peeped like a rosebud from a snowdrift. She snuggled down warmly by the side of Ellicott Baldwin, who had grown so deft with the use of his one hand that to drive was no great task. Over the snow they sped, bells jingling ahead of and behind them. They talked of many things. It was not often that they were alone in each other’s company, and at last the conversation took a new turn.
“Do you know what I said to your father that last night of the old year? Are you cold, darling? You shivered then.”
“Did I shiver? No, I am not cold.” She was trembling at his words. “What did you say?” she asked, almost in a whisper.
“I told him how much I loved his daughter, and he said that I must not tell you then, but that if I could make myself a place in business, as I hoped to do, that he would then be better able to say whether I might speak to you or not. And then—how good he is!—he gave me the chance to show what I could do. Lettice, am I presumptuous? Could you? Do you?”
“Oh, here is the bridge! We shall have to stop and pay toll.” But before the bridge was crossed, more than one toll was paid.