“I don’t know much about love,” said Gatty, drearily.
“About love, or about being loved?” responded Mrs Dolly.
“Both,” answered the girl, in the same tone.
“Will you try it, my dear? ’Tis the sweetener of all human life.”
Gatty looked up with a surprised expression.
“I can’t make people love me,” she said.
“Nor can you make yourself love others,” added Mrs Dorothy. “But you can ask the Lord for that fairest of all His gifts, saving Jesus Christ.”
“Ask God for a beau! O Mrs Dorothy!” exclaimed Gatty in a shocked tone.
“My dear, I never so much as named one,” responded Mrs Dorothy, with a little laugh. “Sure, you are not one of those foolish maids that think they must be loveless and forlorn without they have a husband?”
Gatty had always been taught to think so; and she looked bewildered and mystified. A more eligible husband than old Lord Polesworth was the only idea that associated itself in her mind with the word love.