“Do not be disheartened, my dear guardian,” laughed Virgie, “for perhaps you have it in your power to punish me severely for my presumption in taking up arms against you; however, Mr. Hamilton, we will do our best to come off victorious.”
When they returned to the palace car, Rupert introduced his friend, and then the quartet gave themselves up to the enjoyment of their cards, Miss Knight occupying a seat in another section, and burying herself in a book.
They played for two or three hours, and to Miss Virgie’s great glee, she and her partner beat the others three games out of five.
Mr. Knight accepted his defeat very good-naturedly, but declared that he would be even with them some other time, and then he fell into conversation with his new acquaintances upon the topics of the day, while Virgie sat by and listened, and studied the two young men in whose society she had been so unexpectedly thrown.
Of course we all recognize in Mr. Knight the great publisher, who had been so kind to Mrs. Alexander, in San Francisco, during her many trials there.
The beautiful girl who is traveling with him is her daughter, Virgie, who, when we last saw her at Niagara, was but ten years of age. She is now eighteen, and blossoming into lovely womanhood, and as charming and winsome a maiden as one could find, go the world over.
Her home for a number of years had been in New York city, her mother, as we know, having changed her residence at the time that Mr. Knight decided to come East to establish himself in business.
Mrs. Alexander had used her pen during all this time, giving her friend one or two little gems of art every year, for it was a pleasant pastime for her to employ herself in this way, but her chief thought had been given to the education of her daughter, who proved to be bright and intelligent beyond the average nineteenth century girl. She had graduated from one of the select schools of the city during the summer just passed, and her mother had begun to contemplate taking her abroad when spring should come again, with the intention of demanding her right at Heathdale.
Still, as the time gradually drew nearer, she had shrunk more and more from the task before her, until the constant dread of it had begun to affect her health, and she had been far from well during the last few months.
Mr. Knight and his sister had never visited San Francisco since leaving that city, although they had often talked of doing so. But this winter, when they learned of the Raymond excursion to that and other points on the Pacific coast, they proposed to join it, and invited Mrs. Alexander and her daughter to accompany them.