“Well,” replied Marie-Celeste as thoughtfully, “I don't see how anybody can help being a hero-worshipper, and doing all they can to be heroes themselves.”
“Well, some people do, Marie-Celeste—I have helped it all my life somehow.”
“Yes; I remember you told me something like that on the steamer; but it's a great pity, and it seems to me—”
“What seems to you?” for Marie-Celeste hesitated.
“Are you sure you will not mind, for I only mean to be friendly?”
“Surely I will not mind.”
“Well, then, it seems to me I would try to be a hero at one great jump, to make up for all the lost time.”
“And how would you manage it, Marie-Celeste?”
“I believe I would begin to think out some beautiful thing to do with my money before I died.”
“There is a great deal in what you say, dear child,” Mr. Belden replied earnestly, “and I will think about it; and yet, do you know, I would not have let anybody else in the world make that suggestion to me;” but significant as this last remark was intended to be, Marie-Celeste, to Mr. Belden's surprise, paid little heed to it; for what difference did that make, so long as, without taking offence, he had allowed her to tell him what was for his own good?