"Gordon," she said presently, "I want you to do something for me."
His heart leaped a little at her words.
"Anything you say," he answered.
"Won't you"--she hesitated a moment--"won't you look after Dick a little this summer? Just keep an eye on him, don't you know?"
Marriott laughed, and then he grew sober. He realized that he, perhaps, understood the seriousness that was behind her request better than she did, but he said nothing, for it was all so difficult.
"Oh, he doesn't need any watching," he said, by way of reassuring her.
"You will understand me, I'm sure." She turned her gray eyes on him. "I think it is a critical time with him. I don't know what he does--I don't want to know; I don't mean that you are to pry about, or do anything surreptitious, or anything of that sort. You know, of course; don't you?"
"Why, certainly," he said.
"But I have felt--you see," she scarcely knew how to go about it; "I have an idea that if he could have a certain kind of influence in his life, something wholesome--I think you could supply that."
Marriott was moved by her confidence; he felt a great affection for her in that instant.