"She spends three evenings every week with a friend," was the evasive answer. "It is a great privilege for her, and we are both grateful for the opportunity."
[CHAPTER IV.]
TAKING TIME BY THE FORELOCK.
"AND so you don't approve Mr. Dudley as an acquaintance for Gertrude," began Mr. Wallingford, laughing at Hannah's anxious countenance.
"No, Edward, I'm free to say I don't. I can't explain why it is; but I mistrust him." She was kneading a pan of dough, and knuckled away for a moment in a most decided manner.
"But, Hannah, I've roomed with him for six years. If there was any thing very bad about him I should have found it out before now."
There was no answer until the dough had been pounded and put into pans for a second rising; then turning to the young lawyer the woman said:
"Edward Wallingford, I held Gertrude in my arms before she was an hour old, and loved her as if she were my own. But when your mother, the day before she went to heaven, called me to the bed and made me promise to be a mother to her motherless girl, I called God to witness that I would be so till I died. So far I've kept my vow. Within a year I've had a chance to have a home and a husband; but I said 'no, I've a promise to keep, and God helping me I'll keep it till I'm called away.' Edward, I love that girl with all her faults; and she has faults, better than I could even love any other human being; if any sorrow were to come to her, 'twould go nigh to kill me."
"I don't see how Mr. Dudley's being here for a few weeks can bring sorrow to her."
"None are so blind as those who wont see," murmured the woman with a sigh. "But remember what I tell you. If you don't put some check upon your friend, as your father would do were he alive, you'll regret it when it is too late."