"I beg ten thousand pardons!" he exclaimed, gently. "And it is your mother, too. It always seems to me the saddest thing under heaven when a girl like you loses her mother. Mrs. Chalmers is your guardian, is she not?"
"Yes."
"Of course I ought not to ask it, I who am a perfect stranger to you, but somehow it does not seem to me that I am a stranger. There is some sort of immediately established friendship that makes me feel an interest that perhaps is not reciprocated, and you might resent it as an impertinence."
There was something so frank and honest in the clear blue eyes that Carlita felt herself insensibly warmed by the man's manner, and answered cordially:
"I assure you I would not. I have not so many friends that I can afford to decline an honestly offered friendship, such as I am sure yours is. I am very grateful."
The words were simple enough, but there was something in her manner that touched the young man deeply, and leaning forward, he lifted her hand and pressed it ever so lightly to his lips.
"Thank you," he said, softly. "I shall appreciate the trust above everything else in this world. Then I may ask if—if you—are quite—quite happy here?"
She looked a little surprised for a moment, then the expression of the blue eyes reassured her. She knew she could trust him, knew that he meant her no harm. There was a curious feeling of perfect safety, of implicit confidence in him that she had never felt toward any human being in her life before. It affected her strangely, and there was just a shadow of unshed tears in her eyes as she replied:
"I ought not to say that I am not happy, because I know Jessica and her mother so little. I have been brought up in such a narrow circle. My knowledge of the world is so limited. Papa died when I was a small girl, and mamma was an invalid, as I told you. There were only the neighbors, good people, but not much up in matters of the world, so that it is all new and strange to me. I don't want to show that I am ignorant; I want to do that which Jessica and Mrs. Chalmers tell me; I don't want to appear a little Puritan idiot; but there are some things that do not seem exactly right to me, and I have not learned yet to reconcile myself to them. You see how I have trusted you."
She smiled a trifle wistfully, and he leaned a little further toward her, as if protectingly, as he replied: