“Forward two!” cried Frank, as he clasped Lizzie around the waist and waltzed into the lunch-room.
CHAPTER XXI.
JESSIE ALBEMARLE.
“Miss Hattie,” said Mr. W——, just as the people were leaving work, and she was rising from her table, “please put this letter in your pocket, read it after you have had your supper, and think over its contents. Do not hurry your thoughts—I will wait patiently for an answer after you have well considered what I have written. Let days pass, if you choose, I will not urge a reply; I only ask it after you have given the matter thought.”
She looked up at him with her earnest, truthful eyes, for she noticed that his voice trembled, and almost intuitively she felt that that letter contained a declaration of what his eyes seemed to speak when they met her look—love.
She put the letter in her pocket without a word. She could not have spoken at that moment. For, noticing his agitation, a strange tremor came over her.
He turned, blushing, and went toward his office, while she, putting on her hat and shawl, turned toward the door. At that moment she saw the stately form of Mr. Legare in front of Mr. W——, and the foreman had scarcely spoken to him when Mr. W—— called to her.
The millionaire had come in person to see the poor working girl—to hear her decision, and to ask of her a favor.
“Miss Butler, excuse me that I called at this hour. I knew you would be disengaged, and perhaps could do me a great favor if it is not already done by your consenting to the adoption which I had the honor to propose through Mr. W——.”
“Gratefully, Mr. Legare, I have declined that proposition in an interview held with Mr. W—— at my boarding-house last evening.”
“Yet, my good young friend, you have never met the lady who would take you to her home and heart. She is one of the purest, noblest women on earth. The sister of my dear, dead wife. I have known her these long, long years, and I never met her equal. Her heart is full of sweet sympathies, pure charities, and ennobling thoughts.”