Captain Jack idolized his boy, yet nobody gave him a good word for this. All shook their heads, and said Ralph was being ruined by companionship with his father, and the friends he gathered round him, instead of being treated like a child and placed under a wise teacher to be fittingly instructed.
"They forget that poor Captain Torrance would be alone if he sent the boy away. He must have some one to cheer him, and if his friends are not everything that could be wished, that is partly the fault of his position. He has neither sister, wife, nor brother. A household with no good woman to guide it must be all wrong," decided the girl in her own mind.
Kathleen did not herself look at both sides of the question, or consider that, unless Captain Torrance's character made him unfit for the society of good men, or that his tastes disinclined him for theirs, he might as well have such under his roof as those whom he invited. That, failing wife or female relative, he might have engaged a lady of suitable age to manage his household, watch over his boy, and receive his guests. But the girl was in the mood to excuse every fault of her absent hero, and even to think how delightful it would be for some girl, good, beautiful, and rich, to prove an angel of mercy to Jack Torrance. To lure him away from evil companions by the greater attraction of her purer life, and a whole-hearted, self-devoted love. To be a real mother to a fine boy, whom Kathleen pictured as growing up to repay her by his more than filial affection, and proving a credit to her training. To pay Jack Torrance's debts, so that he might make a new beginning, owing no man anything, except a great debt of love to his rescuer, which he would pay by a life-long devotion. Yet this would not be payment, only an exchange, for the ministering angel would give as much as she received in the way of affection.
"I am sure Captain Torrance might be—"
But the progress of Kathleen's day-dream was at this moment interrupted by a smart groom, no other than Jem Capes, who touched his hat respectfully and paused just in front of her, thus intimating that he had a message to deliver.
It was not a verbal one. Jem touched his hat a second time, held out a letter, and said—
"I was going straight to the Hall with this, miss, but seeing you coming along, I thought I'd better ask if I should give it to you, or go on there with it."
Jem saw Miss Mountford's face flush as she held out her hand for the letter, saying, "I may as well take it, and spare you the trouble of carrying it to the house. If an answer is required I will send it later."
"No trouble at all, miss. My master, Captain Torrance, said there would be no answer. He only got back last night. Master Ralph hasn't been very well."
"I am sorry to hear that," said Kathleen. "I hope he is better."