“But I wish you would explain why you feel so,” said Roger, with a puzzled expression upon his face. “Why did you wish to avoid me? Why did you never wish to see me again? I can’t understand.”
“Dear me, you are very dense!” exclaimed Victoria. “It is as simple as possible, I’m sure! In the first place, I took ten dollars more from you, or five dollars at least, than I should have done, because there was no reason why you should give me more than you would have paid in the store. Then, it—well, Honor felt dreadfully about having let me go to Boston to sell those etchings, and said I ought not to have gone alone, and you, ‘the young man,’ would think it very strange that I was allowed to go when I was so young, and she should have gone with me. That is the reason she hoped we should never see you again. Then when you came here to live I couldn’t tell her that you were the one, because she had felt uncomfortable about calling on your sister anyhow.”
“But why?” asked Madison. “Didn’t she like our looks?”
“Oh, not that at all! Because we are so poor and are working for our living. She felt that you were strangers and perhaps wouldn’t understand, and perhaps wouldn’t want us to call upon you or know you. You see, we haven’t always been so, and it makes it harder. We had great difficulty, Katherine and I, in getting her to go, and when she finally did and liked you all so much I couldn’t bear to spoil it by telling her.”
“I see,” said Roger. “And you won’t spoil it now by telling her, either, because—well, we are such capital friends now and it might make a difference. Wait until—until I know her better. Then we will tell her, you and I together, and have a good laugh over it. But I want to say something to you, Miss Victoria. You needn’t feel in that way about the etching. I happen to know that the picture dealer sold the others for thirty-five dollars each, and mine gave so much pleasure to my sister, to whom I gave it, that it is worth far more to me. I have never regretted buying it, I assure you. And I also want to tell you how much we admire and respect you for the way in which you have all done. So far from our not understanding, we had heard about you before we came, and were most anxious to meet you. We feel proud to know you. Would you mind shaking hands with me?”
Victoria promptly extended her hand, which was warmly grasped by the occupant of the other boat.
“You won’t run away any more,” said he, “will you?”
“No indeed! I’m thankful I don’t have to. You have done me a lot of good. It is one of the things I came down here to think over. You see I had no one to speak to about it, and I really seem to need some one always to talk things over with.”
“It is a great comfort. My sister and I have that habit, too. Can’t you talk the other ‘things’ over with me? You say this was one of them, so there must be more.”
Victoria blushed and turned away.