This was not the first time that Louise Barrows, the bride-elect, had been called upon to vindicate the comforts of her future home. Her father had demurred and hesitated, and argued the question with his prospective son-in-law, and the mother had shed some tears in secret over the thought that the daughter of whom she was so proud had chosen so obscure and prosaic a future.
"Think of her getting-up at four o'clock in the morning to look after the butter and milk, and get breakfast for the workmen!" she had said to her husband in their confidential talks; and he had answered—
"There are worse lots in life than that, I suppose."
But he had sighed as heavily as the young daughter always did when she thought about it, and he had wished from his inmost heart that things had shaped differently. Still he essayed to comfort his wife.
"He is Louise's own choice, and he is a good Christian man, with strong, solid principles. It might have been much worse."
"Oh yes," the mother assented, "he is a Christian man;" and the tone in which she said it might almost have justified you in expecting her to add: "But that doesn't amount to much." What she did say was: "But what can Louise do for herself or others, buried alive out there? She is eminently fitted for usefulness. You know as well as I that she would grace any circle, and that she is a leader among her set; she leads in the right direction, too, which is more than can be said of most girls: but what chance will she have to develop her talents?"
"That is true," the father said, and then he sighed again. Yet these Christian parents had prayed for their daughter every day since she was born, and professed assured confidence in the belief that God guides his children and answers prayer. Still their faith did not reach high enough to get away from a lurking belief that the Guide of their daughter's life had made a mistake in setting her future among such surroundings. Not that they put the thought into such words—that would have been irreverent; but what did their sighings and regrettings mean?
It was rather hard on the prospective bride, even though her parents were wise enough to say almost nothing about their regrets, now that the question was settled. But she felt it in the atmosphere. Besides, she had to encounter a like anxiety from another source. It was only the evening before Estelle's cross-questioning occurred that Lewis Morgan himself, getting-up from one of the luxurious easy-chairs which, repeated in varying patterns, abounded in Mr. Barrows' parlours, crossed over to the mantel, and, resting his elbow on its edge and his forehead on his hand, looked down from his fine height on Louise as she nestled in a brown-tinted plush chair that harmonized perfectly with her soft, rich dress, and contrasted perfectly with her delicate skin, and made to the gazer a lovely picture, which seemed but to heighten his perplexity.
"After all, Louise," he said, "I don't know but we made a mistake in planning as we did. Someway, out in Australia, where my planning was done, the contrast between your present home and our future one was not so sharply defined before me as it is here."
"Shut your eyes, then," said Louise, "and imagine yourself back in Australia, when you have any planning to do. That is quite as near as I want you to get to that barbarous country again."