"Tell me about him!" she said as she poured a second cup of coffee. "I'm wonderfully taken with that young man. He looks like true blue to me."
"Oh, he is!" said Marguerite's mother.
And she began to tell of the days the years when her girl and this fine boy were growing up together, till gradually the care lifted from the mother's face.
But the tale came to a sudden bitter end with the plaint that was almost a sob:
"She had all that devotion in a fine young man her own age, and yet she could think she cared for that old slippery beast!"
Mary Dunlap gave an almost girlish giggle.
"He is that, isn't he? I keep thinking of his poor dear wife and daughters who think he is the salt of the earth. Oh, poor dears! I do hope they don't ever have to find it out this side—or at least not till the Lord has made him over. But my dear, don't you think that perhaps your child hadn't just waked up to realities yet? Wasn't she more in love with being in love, than with the man himself? She was under a strong delusion as the Bible says, but I'm sure it has been swept away, and in full time.
"My dear, I'll tell you something. Her hand was on the boy's arm confidingly as if she trusted him, and his strong hand was over it, tenderly, comfortingly, as if she were dearer to him than life. I couldn't help seeing the look on his face as he bent to speak to her from his fine height—she is such a little girl, so sweet and small—and my dear, I suppose I ought not to have seen it, and maybe ought to keep it to myself now I have, but it seems to me you have a right to know she smiled up into his face, such a sweet trustful smile, that I couldn't help feeling that her heart will fly back to him as a refuge now in her trouble. I saw that. Yes, I saw it while you were talking to Mrs. Oliver. I'm sure you have a right to know. And the Lord has let that young man be an instrument of rescue for your girl. I'm sure."
"Oh!" said the mother with a wistful sigh, "If that could only be, I would ask nothing better of life."
"Don't set your limits, my dear! The Lord may have that and even greater blessings yet in store. Now, you are going to sleep, and I'm going to sit here at the desk and get some of my correspondence out of the way or I'll be swamped."