"James! The very idea! I'd rather stay at home than go through Europe tied to a blind boy. I should never have a moment to myself."
"Why couldn't he board at the Carters'?"
"The very thing! Fred had such a good time there three weeks ago! He would be so happy, and Bessie is very good to him. I really think he considers her as a sort of mother."
"Well he may," said Mr. Allen. "We owe that girl a debt we can never repay. But I wonder if they would take Fred. They have never had boarders, and he would be a great deal of care."
"Not so much," said his wife, shifting her ground to suit the new question at issue. "He could have Mary go with him to wait on him. You can arrange it, I know. You send them a note to-morrow, and if they will take him, I will be ready to sail—let me see, this is Wednesday. I will be ready next Wednesday."
"I will try to arrange it," said her husband thoughtfully. "But I do hope they won't feel I am asking too much. When I think of it, to placidly request that they take an invalid and his servant to board for a year, is a good deal."
"Nonsense!" said Mrs. Allen. "You can pay them well; and, really, James, if Fred would only rouse himself, he would be as well as ever. He makes a good deal out of his blindness."
"Why, Louise, what do you mean? I have never heard him complain."
"No, he doesn't complain, exactly, but just lies on the sofa, and doesn't care for anything or anybody, and when I try to comfort him, he turns away his face and won't say anything. But I'm sleepy. I'm going to bed; and you just write that note to-night, so they will get it to-morrow, surely." And she went away, leaving her husband to muse over his cigar, in the light of the dying fire.
His wife was trying, at times. Years ago he had married a pretty little society girl, not so much because he loved her as that he wished a suitable head for his pleasant suburban home. Socially, Louise Allen fulfilled all the requirements; but her husband often longed for a companion, but found none in the selfish, wayward woman who presided over his household.