His father desired to see him at once, in the library, on a matter of business.
And no sooner had he, with a little good-humored grumbling, departed, than Carrie unceremoniously left the room by another door, and the two guests were alone together.
I am aware that I have had to present Miss Carrie to you in a very unfavorable light. As a rule, she was good-humored and ladylike, and, being a year or two older than Elsie, was in the habit of being looked up to by her. But, being a young woman without a settled purpose of life or a guiding motive for speech or action, she was left, more or less, at the mercy of the passing mood; and the excitements of the past few days had served to unsettle her nerves to an unusual degree.
Left to themselves, an embarrassing silence followed. Elsie did not know how to commence a conversation with this cultured man of the world; especially, after the experiences of the last hour.
It was he who finally led the way:
"Would you mind giving me some of your objections to card-playing for amusement? I think I am not well posted as you suppose your cousin to be."
There was neither banter nor sarcasm in his voice; instead, he seemed to be in earnest. But Elsie, full of sparkling logic for the boys and girls, was unused to arguing with a gentleman, and hesitated.
"Don't they become snares to some young men, and lead them into temptation and misery sometimes?" she said at last.
He seemed surprised at the answer, and waited a moment before he said, "I think they do; but it does not seem to me that your cousin Ben is tempted in that direction."
"I was not thinking of him at all. If any person came to mind it was little Teddy Reilly, my Sabbath-school boy, whose father is a professional gambler, and who lives in an atmosphere of impurity. I want to keep my hands so clean from all such things that there shall never be the possibility of his associating me with them. And the world is full of Teddy Reillys; we may meet them when we do not know it, and influence them when we are not thinking of such a thing. Besides, I have two little brothers. I don't want them ever to find in gambling saloons anything that will remind them of home and home pleasures."