There was a faint sigh in the direction of the sofa, on which Mrs. Johnson, who for several days had been suffering from a severe pain in her head, was lying, and the sigh smote painfully on Alice’s ear, for well she guessed its import.
“Mother,” she said gently, as leaving her chair she came and knelt by her mother’s side, “you look pale and worried, as if something ailed you more than your head. You have looked so for some time past. What is it, mother? Are you very sick, or——” and Alice hesitated, “are you troubled about me?”
“Is there any reason why I should be troubled about my darling?” asked the mother, smoothing fondly the bright curls almost touching her face.
Alice never had any secrets from her mother, and she answered frankly, “I don’t know, unless—unless—mother, why don’t you like Dr. Richards?”
The ice was fairly broken now, and very briefly but candidly Mrs. Johnson told why she did not like him. He was handsome, refined, educated and agreeable, she admitted, but there was something lacking. The mask he was wearing had not deceived her, and she would have liked him far better without it. This she said to Alice, adding gently, “He may be all he seems, but I doubt it. I distrust him greatly. I think he fancies you and loves your money.”
“Oh, mother, you do him injustice, and he has been so kind to us, while Snowdon is so much pleasanter since he came.”
“Are you engaged to him?” was Mrs. Johnson’s next question.
“No,” and Alice looked up wonderingly. “I do not like him well enough for that.”
Alice Johnson was wholly ingenuous and would not for the world have concealed a thing from her mother, and very frankly she continued,
“I like Dr. Richards better than any gentleman I have ever met, and it seems to me that people here do him injustice, but I may be mistaken. I know he is unpopular, and that first made me sorry for him. I am sure he is pleased with me, but he has never asked me to be his wife. I should have told you, mother,” and the beautiful eyes which had so charmed the doctor, looked up confidingly at the pale face bending over them.