“Yes. Of course if she had come and told me she didn’t care for him, I never would have kept on inviting him; but she is so secretive it is impossible to tell what she is thinking about. I never dreamed that she was conscious that I was trying to—to help her; and I have always been so discreet that I think she never would have been if Mr. Durant hadn’t begun to joke about it. Only guess, darling, what he said to me once right before her, just as I thought I was getting her interested in young Schenck!”
“I can’t imagine.”
“Oh, it was some of his Wall Street talk about promoters of trusts always securing options on the properties to be taken in, before attempting a consolidation, or something of that sort. I shouldn’t have known what he meant if the boys hadn’t laughed and looked at Constance. And then Jack made matters worse by saying that my interest would be satisfied with common stock, but Constance would only accept preferred for hers. Men do blurt things out so—and yet they assert that we women haven’t tongue discretion. No, dear, with them about it’s perfectly useless for me to do so much as lift a finger to marry Constance off, let alone her own naturally distrustful nature.”
“Well, then, can’t you get some one to do it for you—some friend of hers?”
“I don’t believe there is a person in the world who could influence Constance as regards marriage,” moaned Mrs. Durant. “Don’t think that I want to sacrifice her, dear; but she really isn’t happy herself—for—well—she is a stepdaughter, you know—and so can never quite be the same in the family life; and now that she has tired of society, she really doesn’t find enough to do to keep busy. Constance wanted to go into the Settlement work, but her father wouldn’t hear of it—and really, Josie, every one would be happier and better if she only would marry—”
“I beg your pardon for interrupting you, mama. I thought you were alone,” came a voice from the doorway. “How do you do, Mrs. Ferguson?”
“Oh!” ejaculated both ladies, as they looked up, to find standing in the doorway a handsome girl, with clear-cut patrician features, and an erect carriage which gave her an air of marked distinction.
“I only stopped to ask about the errand you asked me to do when I went out,” explained the girl, quietly, as the two women hunted for something to say.
“Oh. Yes. Thank you for remembering, darling,” stammered Mrs. Durant, finding her voice at last. “Won’t you please order a bunch of something sent to Miss Porter—and—and—I’ll be very much obliged if you’ll attend to it, Constance, my dear.”
The girl merely nodded her head as she disappeared, but neither woman spoke till the front door was heard to close, when Mrs. Durant exclaimed, “How long had she been standing there?”