Both the young men started to accompany her; but Hannah said decidedly, "She prefers to walk alone, and Hiram will go for her at nine." "I protest," began Paul; but Ned interrupted him by asking gravely: "Where does she go at this hour?" "She spends three evenings every week with a friend," was the evasive answer. "It is a great privilege for her, and we are both grateful for the opportunity." CHAPTER IV. TAKING TIME BY THE FORELOCK. "AND so you don't approve Mr. Dudley as an acquaintance for Gertrude," began Mr. Wallingford, laughing at Hannah's anxious countenance. "No, Edward, I'm free to say I don't. I can't explain why it is; but I mistrust him." She was kneading a pan of dough, and knuckled away for a moment in a most decided manner. "But, Hannah, I've roomed with him for six years. If there was any thing very bad about him I should have found it out before now." There was no answer until the dough had been pounded and put into pans for a second rising; then turning to the young lawyer the woman said: "Edward Wallingford, I held Gertrude in my arms before she was an hour old, and loved her as if she were my own. But when your mother, the day before she went to heaven, called me to the bed and made me promise to be a mother to her motherless girl, I called God to witness that I would be so till I died. So far I've kept my vow. Within a year I've had a chance to have a home and a husband; but I said 'no, I've a promise to keep, and God helping me I'll keep it till I'm called away.' Edward, I love that girl with all her faults; and she has faults, better than I could even love any other human being; if any sorrow were to come to her, 'twould go nigh to kill me." "I don't see how Mr. Dudley's being here for a few weeks can bring sorrow to her." "None are so blind as those who wont see," murmured the woman with a sigh. "But remember what I tell you. If you don't put some check upon your friend, as your father would do were he alive, you'll regret it when it is too late." "Do speak plain, Hannah. What is it you fear? Gertrude is only a child; and after this visit will probably never see Paul again." "God grant it; for I tell you he will never make a kind husband; and I can see, if you can't, that he's doing his best to steal away her heart." Edward laughed, but not heartily. "You're mistaken, Hannah," he urged. "He has no idea of marrying for years, I have heard him say so a hundred times. He means to be settled and make a fortune first; and then his ideas of a wife, are the very reverse of what Gerty is." "Well, time will show which of us is right; and I pray earnestly my fears may prove false; but will you answer one question; supposing, I am right and that his hanging round after Gertrude, watching every step she takes, and being quite lost when she is out of sight, means that he wants her for a wife, have you never in all the years you've been together seen any thing you would disapprove in a brother-in-law?"