A wilful ward

by Ruth Lamb

"You would have been charmed with the little fellow, Aylmer. You must help me to be kind to him."

What could Aylmer say? How could he object to Kathleen inviting a mere child, because of his father's antecedents? He knew that to suggest the exclusion of the boy would probably raise a storm of indignation on the part of his ward, and would appear to most people ungenerous and tyrannical. Yet Hetty Stapleton's words of warning were ringing in his ears, and he was profoundly convinced of their wisdom.

"He will woo Kathleen most effectively by means of his boy, of whom she is very fond."

It would be almost impossible to preserve the same distance between the Hall and Monk's How, if Kathleen made a pet of Ralph under her own roof. A mere outdoor intimacy, which allowed John Torrance to join her whenever they chanced to meet, would be worse still.

Aloud, Aylmer said, "I shall be only too glad to help you, Kathleen, in any plan for the boy's real good."

All the same, his mind was full of fears, which he vainly strove to stifle, and he wished that any one but himself filled the post of guardian to Kathleen. She was wonderfully sweet and kind in her manner to him that evening, asking his advice even about what seemed purely feminine matters, and promptly acting upon it, even where it did not accord with her own ideas. So stirred was Aylmer by the tender graciousness of Kathleen's manner, that he gave himself no further time for self-questioning. Hetty Stapleton's counsel had encouraged hope, his own doubts and scruples were put aside, and, availing himself of an unexpected opportunity, Aylmer told his ward the story of his love.

"I know not when I began to love you, dear," he said. "It seems to me that I cannot look back upon a time, since you were the merest slip of a girl, when you were not first and dearest of all to me. Though you were so much younger, and I grown to manhood, I never pictured a home for myself in which you were not the 'angel of the house.' Your father loved me, Kathleen, and gave me the place a brother might have filled, had you possessed one. Let me finish, dear Kathleen;" for the girl would have interrupted. "Hear my story out, and then give me your answer."

Then Aylmer told her how, whilst longing to be faithful to the trust reposed in him, it had raised a certain barrier between her and himself which had kept him silent until now, though he had longed to speak.

"I have been afraid that the world would misjudge me, and say that the guardian was selfish, and scheming to keep his beautiful ward and her wealth for himself. And yet, dear, you will believe me when I say that to me my sweet Kathleen, with only herself to bestow, would give me what is worth more than all the riches of the world, if she would put her dear hand in mine and bid me keep it."

"I wish I could—oh, how I wish I could!" said Kathleen. "It is dreadful to me to say a word that will grieve you, but I have never thought of you in that way. I have been trying so much of late to show you that I cared for you as if you were my own dear, good brother, and many, many times when I have pained you I have suffered more myself than you have done, though I have seemed hard and wilful, for you were always so patient. When I was a child, Aylmer, I used to think God had given you to me for a brother, because I had none of my own. Be my brother still, and try to forget."