Governesses -- Fiction; Love stories; New England -- Fiction; Young women -- Fiction
“You are going to teach her to love you, Guy Remington, just as sure as
my name is Noah.”
“And is that anything so very bad, I’d like to know? Most girls do not
find love distasteful,” and Guy walked hastily to the window, where he
stood for a moment gazing out upon the soft April snow, which was
falling, and feeling anything but satisfied either with the weather or
himself; then walking back, and taking a seat before the fire, he said:
“I understand you now. You would save Maddy Clyde from sorrow, and you
are right. You know more of girls than I do. She might in time get
to—to—think of me as she ought not. I never looked upon it in this light
before. I’ve been so happy with her;” Guy’s voice faltered a little, but
he recovered himself and went on: “I will tell her about Lucy to-night,
but I can’t send her away. Neither will she be happy to go back, for
though the best of people, they are not like Maddy, and you know it.”
Mrs. Noah did know it, and pleased that her boy, as she called Guy, had
shown some signs of penitence and amendment, she said she did not think
it necessary to send Maddy home; she did not advise it either. She liked
the girl, and what she advised was this, that Guy should send Maddy and
Jessie both to boarding-school. Agnes, she knew, would be willing, and
it was the best thing he could do. Maddy would thus learn what was
expected of a teacher, and as soon as she graduated, she could procure
some eligible situation, or if Lucy were there, and desired it, she
could come and stay forever for all she cared.
“And during the vacations, where must she go?” Guy asked.
“Go where she pleases, of course. As Jessie is so fond of her, and they
are so much like sisters, it will not be improper for her to come here,
as I see, provided Agnes is here. Her presence, of course, would make a
difference,” Mrs. Noah replied; while Guy continued:
“I know you are right; that is, I do not wish to do Maddy a harm by
placing temptation in her way, neither will I have anybody meddling with
my business. I tell you I won’t. I don’t mean you, for you have a right
to say what no one else has,” and he glanced half angrily at Mrs. Noah.
“Pity if I can’t take an interest in a girl, because I once wronged her,
without every old woman in Christendom thinking she must needs fall in
love with me, and so be ruined for life. Maddy Clyde has too good sense
for that, or will have when I tell her about Lucy.”
“And you will do so?” Mrs. Noah said, coaxingly.
“Of course I will, and write to Lucy, too, telling her how you talked,
and how I care no more for Maddy than I do for Jessie.”
“And will that be true?” Mrs. Noah asked.
Guy could not look her fully in the face then, so he kicked the grate
until the concussion sent the red-hot coals out upon the carpet, as he
replied:
“True? Yes, every word of it.”
Mrs. Noah noted all this, and thought:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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