“I’m so glad you are doing better, for——” here she hesitated and colored painfully, while Everard said:
“Well, go on. What is it? Do you mean the governor rides a high horse on account of my misdemeanors?”
“Yes, Mr. Everard, just that. He is dreadful when you write for more money, which he says you squander on cigars, and fast horses, and fine clothes, and girls; he actually said girls, but my,—your mother told him she knew you were not the kind of person to think of girls, and you so young; absurd!”
And Rossie pursed up her little mouth as if it were a perfectly preposterous idea for Everard Forrest to be thinking of the girls!
The young man laughed a low, musical laugh, and replied, “I don’t know about that. I should say it was just in my line. There are ever so many pretty girls in Ellicottville and Holburton, and one of them is so very beautiful that I’m half tempted to run away with and marry her. What would you think of that, Rossie?”
For a moment the matter-of-fact Rossie looked at him curiously, and then replied:
“I should think you crazy, and you not through college. I believe your father would disinherit you, and serve you right, too.”
“And you, Rossie; wouldn’t you stand by me and help me if I got into such a muss?”
“Never!” and Rossie spoke with all the decision and dignity of thirty. “It would kill your mother, too. I sometimes think she means you for Miss Belknap; she is so handsome this summer!”
“Without her hair?” Everard asked, and Rossie replied, “Yes, without her hair. She has a wig, but does not quite like it. She means to get another.”