“My dear, I am quite well pleased with you,” went on the older woman. “If you handle all your affairs so sensibly, you have a brilliant future before you.”
Gail’s eyelids closed; the long, brown lashes curved down on her cheeks, revealing just a sparkle of brightness, while the mischievous little smile twitched at the corners of her lips.
“If you were an ordinary girl, I would urge you, to-night, to make a selection among the exceptionally excellent matrimonial material of which you have a choice, but, with your extraordinary talents and beauty, my advice is just to the contrary. You should delay until you have had a wider opportunity for judgment. You have not as yet shown any marked preference, I hope.”
Gail’s quite unreasoning impulse was to giggle, but she clothed her voice demurely.
“No, Aunt Helen.”
“You are remarkably wise,” complimented Aunt Helen, a bit of appreciation which quite checked Gail’s impulse to giggle. “In the meantime, it is just as well to study your opportunities. Of course there’s Dick Rodley, whom no one considers seriously, and Willis Cunningham, whose one and only drawback is such questionable health that he might persistently interfere with your social activities. Houston Van Ploon, I am frank to say, is the most eligible of all, and to have attracted his attention is a distinct triumph. Mr. Allison, while rather advanced in years—”
“Please!” cried Gail. “You’d think I was a horse.”
“I know just how you feel,” stated Aunt Helen, entirely unruffled; “but you have your future to consider, and I wish to invite your confidence,” and in her voice there was the quaver of much concern.
“Thank you, Aunt Helen,” said Gail, realising the sincerity of the older woman’s intentions, and, putting her arms around Mrs. Davies’ neck, she kissed her. “It is dear of you to take so much interest.”
“I think it’s pride,” confessed Mrs. Davies, naïvely. “I won’t keep you up a minute longer, Gail. Go to bed, and get all the sleep you can. Only sleep will keep those roses in your cheeks. Good-night,” and with a parting caress, she went to her own room, with a sense of a duty well performed.