CHAPTER XXIX.
TOM FULLER'S LETTER.
As they were sitting at dinner the next day, Mellen inquired about Fuller.
"I have quite forgotten to ask you about Tom," he said; "he was in France when you last wrote to me."
"He has not come yet," Elizabeth replied; "the house in which he was employed, concluded to keep him at Bordeaux for a time; in his last letter he wrote that he might be gone another year."
"Poor old Tom," Elsie said, laughingly.
Elizabeth's brows contracted a little; she had never been able entirely to forget the suffering this girl had caused the young man. Whenever she heard her mention his name in that trifling way, it jarred upon her feelings and irritated her greatly.
"Bessie doesn't like any one to laugh at Tom," said Mellen, noticing the expression of her face.
"I confess I do not," she replied; "he is such a noble fellow at the bottom, with an honest, kindly heart, and it seems to me that no one really acquainted with Tom can help respecting him, in spite of his eccentricities."