"Yes. She is my only friend——"
"Maud, your only friend!"
"I mean, of course, William, after you."
"That's a good child. Call me William always, and learn to think of Mrs. Grant as your second friend. I hope she will continue to stay with you. Do you think she will?"
"Oh, yes; she has promised. She is and has been a great and a good friend to me. I do not know what I should have done all through the last few months but for her. She has promised to stay with me as long as I like, and I know I shall like her to stay with me always."
He looked fixedly at the slender graceful figure by his side, the figure of the only woman in the world in whom he felt interest—the interest of blood. The idea that he was head of the family felt new to him. He had often tried to realise it before, but never until now did he know what it was to have any one dependent upon his protection; and the person so depending being his beautiful cousin Maud, the feeling was not only new, but sweet and purifying as well.
At length he said: "I wish I had not to go abroad; but, Maud, when I came away from Egypt I had intended to return, and left matters in such a state that my not going back would cause the greatest confusion, and I must not, because I have now become rich, treat badly the office so useful to me when I was poor. But I will be back to see that you are all right as soon as ever I can. Has your guardian, Mr. Grey, any sons?"
"No. He has no child. He never had a child."
"He is married, of course?"
"Yes, but he lost his wife in a dreadful accident that happened to a river steamboat some months ago."