“I don’t believe that, mother, but I mean to come home early and leave James there if I can.”
Bertie, however, came home before eight o’clock and with him James, who went directly to his bedroom. The moment the door closed after James, Bertie exclaimed,—
“It’s all fixed, mother.”
“What’s fixed?”
“About her going with him. I told him what to say; he didn’t say half what I told him, nor the way I told him, but it came to about the same thing.”
“If he had he would have appeared ridiculous.”
“Why, mother?”
“Because your manner of expressing yourself would have appeared as much out of the way from his lips as would your head on his shoulders.”
“I mean to tell him that the journey is his chance, and if he don’t improve it he’ll never have another, and never ought to.”
“You had a great deal better tell him that Emily never would have consented to go with him, and her parents would never have let her go, if both she and they had not reposed the utmost confidence in him, neither would Mary Whitman have made the request; and that will encourage him to overcome his bashfulness.”