"Think, Mattie, of my coming here to spend a week with you—of being your companion. Why, it'll be the old times back again."
"I should be more glad to see you if I thought there were no other reason, Miss Harriet," said Mattie—"but there is!"
"Why, what can there——"
Mattie caught her by the sleeve.
"Your father suspects that I am not honest—the past life has come a little closer, and made him repent of all the past kindness—is not that it?"
"No, no, Mattie, dear—you must not think that!"
"He has grown suspicious of me—I can see it in his looks, in his altered manner; and, oh! I can do nothing to stop it—to show him that I am as honest as the day."
"Patience, Mattie, dear," said Harriet, "we will soon prove that to him, if he require proof. If I have come at his wish, it was at my own, too, and you are exaggerating the reasons that have brought me hither."
"I wonder why I stop here now," said Mattie, thoughtfully. "I, who am a young woman, and can get my own living. If he is tired of me, I have no right to stop."
"You will stop for the sake of those who love you, and who have trust in you, Mattie; you will not think of going away."