He did not get any further, for Maddy hastily interrupted him, and while her eyes flashed with pride, exclaimed:
“I will not be a charity patient! I say I will not! I’d be a hired girl before I’d do it!”
It troubled the doctor to see Maddy so disturbed about dollars and cents—to know that poverty was pressing its iron hand upon her young heart; and only because she was so young did he refrain from offering her then and there a resting place from the ills of life in his sheltering love. But she was not prepared, and he should only defeat his object by his rashness, so he restrained himself, though he did pass his arm partly around her waist as he said to her:
“I tell you, Maddy, honestly, that when I want that bill liquidated I’ll ask you. I certainly will, and I’ll let you pay it, too. Does that satisfy you?”
Yes, Maddy was satisfied, and after a little the doctor continued:
“By the way, Maddy, I have some idea of going to Europe for a few months, or a year or more. You know it does a physician good to study awhile in Paris. What do you think of it? Shall I go?”
The doctor had become quite necessary to Maddy’s happiness. He it was to whom she confided all her little troubles, and to lose him would be a terrible loss, and so she answered that if it would be much better for him she supposed he ought to go, though she should miss him sadly and be so lonely without him.
“Would you, Maddy? Are you in earnest? Would you be lonelier for my being gone?” the doctor asked, eagerly. With her usual truthfulness, Maddy replied: “Of course I should;” and, when, after the conference was ended, the doctor stood for a moment talking with Guy, ere bidding him good-night, he said: “I think I shall not accept your European proposition. Somebody else must cure Lucy.”
The next day, as Guy had proposed, he rode down to Honedale, taking Maddy with him, and offering so many reasons why she should not be called home, that the old people began to relent, particularly as they saw how Maddy’s heart was set on the lessons Guy was going to give her. She might never have a like opportunity, the young man said, and as a good education would put her in the way of helping them when they were older and needed her more, it was their duty to leave her with them. He knew they objected to her receiving three dollars a week, but he should pay it just the same, and if they chose they might, with a part of it, hire a little girl to do the work which Maddy would do were she at home. All this sounded very feasible, especially as it was backed up by Maddy’s eyes, brimful of tears, and fixed pleadingly upon her grandfather. The sight of them, more than Guy’s arguments, influenced the old man, who decided that if grandma were willing Maddy should stay, unless absolutely needed at the cottage. Then the tears burst forth, and winding her arms around her grandfather’s neck, Maddy sobbed out her thanks, asking if it were selfish and wicked and naughty in her to prefer learning rather than staying there.
“Not if that’s your only reason,” grandpa replied. “It’s right to want learning, quite right; but, if my child is biased by the fine things at Aikenside, and hates to come back to her poor home, because ’tis poor, I should say it was very natural, but not exactly right.”