"How can we bring her?" he asked. "We can't kidnap her from her mother."
"Perhaps Rita may be induced to kidnap herself," remarked Billy. "If we furnish the plan, do you believe Rita will furnish the girl? Will she come with us?" You see Billy, as well as Dic, was eloping with this young lady.
"Yes, she will come when I ask her," returned Dic, with confidence.
After staring at the young man during a full minute, Billy said: "I am afraid all my labor upon you has been wasted. If you are so great a fool as not—do you mean to say you have never asked her to go with you—run away—elope?"
"I have never asked her to elope," returned Dic, with an expression of doubt in his face. Billy's words had aroused him to a knowledge of the fact that he was not at all the man for this situation.
"You understand it is this way," continued Dic, in explanation of his singular neglect. "Rita does not see her mother with our eyes. She believes her to be a perfect woman. She believes every one is good; but her mother has, for so many years, sounded the clarion of her own virtues, that Rita takes the old woman at her own valuation, and holds her to be a saint in virtue, and a feminine Solomon in wisdom. Rita believes her mother the acme of intelligent, protecting kindness, and looks upon her cruelty as the result of parental love, meant entirely for the daughter's own good. I have not wanted to pain my future wife by causing a break with her mother. Should Rita run off with me, there would be no forgiveness for her in the breast of Justice."
"The girl, doubtless, could live happily without it," answered Billy.
"Not entirely happy," returned Dic. "She would grieve. You don't know what a tender heart it is, Billy Little. There is not another like it in all the world. Had it not been for that consideration, I would have been selfish enough to bring her home with me when she offered to come, and would—"
"Mighty Moses!" cried Billy, springing to his feet. "She offered to go with you?"
"Yes," replied Dic; "she said when last I saw her, 'You should have taken me long ago.'"