“Miss Elsworth,” he said, “I wish you could know my mother and sister.”
“I have promised Mr. Horton that I would try to know his wife, but I have had so much work to attend to of late that I have neither made nor received calls; indeed I seldom find time for that pleasure at all.”
“Some ladies find time for little else,” said Scott, smiling.
“Yes, some live for pleasure; my life is made up of work.”
“How much better it would be if the idlers in the world were compelled to bear a part of the labor.”
“It is no doubt right as it is, but yet the world makes one doubt their best friends, and when one is deceived, and cruelly wronged, it is so hard to know who is true, so we are apt to overlook the good qualities of many and class them all as selfish. How the time passes,” she said, glancing at her watch. “I have already remained too long. Good bye,” giving him her hand. “Please tender my regards to your mother and sister.”
He held her hand a moment. There was a magnetism in the touch that almost frightened him. He would not allow the power of a woman’s fascination to overcome him.
“Good bye, Miss Elsworth,” he said.
She had taken but a step when he again spoke her 298 name. There was a charm about her that he could not resist, and he asked:
“Will you not allow me the pleasure of calling on you?”