“For Heaven’s sake, Mollie! how long is this to go on?” he burst forth one day, after a repulse like this, and for the moment losing all self-control.
“I cannot tell, Phil—until I know,” she gently returned. “Or,” she added, with a grave look into his clouded eyes, “if I weary you with this uncertainty, do not hesitate to tell me so, and we will part—friends.”
“Mollie! Mollie! How you torture me!” he cried at this. “Life to me would not be worth the living apart from you.” And he believed that he really meant it.
She sighed regretfully, and a shade of sadness stole over her face. She realized that she was trying him severely, but she was not “sure” even yet, and she would not be untrue to herself or wrong him by professing an affection which she did not feel, although there were times when she was almost on the point of yielding.
“I am very sure I have never met any young man whom I like as well as Phil,” she would sometimes admit, when discussing the subject with herself, “but I do not feel, as he says,’that I cannot live without him.’ In fact, I am sure I could be happier without him than without my father, and I know”—a queer little smile flitting over her lips—“that is not the right attitude for a girl to maintain toward the man she expects to marry. Besides, I cannot get at Phil—he eludes, he evades me, he does not reveal his real self to me.”
Mr. Heatherford and his daughter were most comfortably located in pleasant rooms in the Adams House, and they were very happy together, although there were times when Mollie was conscious that her father was weighted with a load of anxiety that was well-nigh crushing him.
But she did everything in her power to cheer and amuse him when he was with her, coaxing him into the country while the bright October days lasted as often as she could, and playing cribbage and other games when they were alone evenings.
During business hours, when he was absent, she employed the time in earnest and faithful study to perfect herself in certain branches which she surmised might be useful to her in the near future.
After Mr. and Mrs. Temple’s return from the Adirondacks, Mollie became conscious of a decided coolness in their manner toward herself and her father, although they were always courteous whenever they chanced to meet.
Mrs. Temple seldom called—she was “so busy with club engagements, receptions, etc.,” she gave as an excuse, and so, of course, Mollie scarcely ever went out to Brookline.