“I didn’t know you hobnobbed with the enemy.”
“I don’t. But as far as I can understand him, he purposes to take me up on an exceeding high mountain and offer me the world and the fulness thereof. We all like to be tempted whether we fall or not. The Doctor hates McLeod. I think he holds some grudge against him. What do you think of him, Auntie? He swears by you. I used to dislike him as a boy, but he seems a pretty decent sort of fellow now, and I can’t help liking just a little anybody who loves you. I confess he has a fascination for me.”
“Why do you ask my opinion of him?” slowly asked Mrs. Durham.
“Because I’m not quite sure of his honesty. He talks fairly, but there’s something about him that casts a doubt over his fairest words. He says he has the most important proposition of my life to place before me to-day, and I’m at a loss how to meet him—whether as a well-meaning friend or a scheming scoundrel. He’s a puzzle to me.”
“Well Charlie, I don’t mind telling you that he is a puzzle to me. I’ve always been strangely attracted to him, even when he was a big red-headed brute of a boy. The Doctor always disliked him and I thought, misjudged him. He has always paid me the supremest deference, and of late years the most subtle flattery. No woman, who feels her life a failure, as I do mine, can be indifferent to such a compliment from a man of trained mind and masterful character. This is a sore subject between the Doctor and myself. And when I see him shaking hands a little too lingeringly with admiring sisters after his services, I repay him with a chat with my devoted McLeod. Don’t ask me. I like him, and I don’t like him. I admire him and at the same time I suspect and half fear him.”
“Strange we feel so much alike about him. But your heart has always been very close to mine, since you slipped your arm around me that night my mother died. I know about what he will say, and I know about what I ’ll do.” He stooped and kissed his fostermother tenderly.
“Charlie, I’m in earnest about my pretty girl that’s coming. Don’t forget it.”
“Bah! You’ve fooled me before.”