第61章

When he could yield her the photograph, she looked long and silently at it. "She has a great deal of character, Dan.""There you've hit it, mother! I'd rather you would have said that than anything else. But don't you think she's beautiful? She's the gentlest creature, when you come to know her! I was awfully afraid of her at first. I thought she was very haughty. But she isn't at all. She's really very self-depreciatory; she thinks she isn't good enough for me.

You ought to hear her talk, mother, as I have. She's full of the noblest ideals--of being of some use in the world, of being self-devoted, and--all that kind of thing. And you can see that she's capable of it. Her aunt's in a Protestant sisterhood," he said, with a solemnity which did not seem to communicate itself to his mother, for Mrs. Mavering smiled. Dan smiled too, and said: "But I can't tell you about Alice, mother. She's perfect."His heart overflowed with proud delight in her, and he was fool enough to add, "She's so affectionate!"His mother kept herself from laughing. "I dare say she is, Dan--with you." Then she hid all but her eyes with the photograph, and gave way.

"What a donkey!" said Dan, meaning himself. "If I go on, I shall disgust you with her. What I mean is that she isn't at all proud, as I used to think she was.""No girl is, under the circumstances. She has all she can do to be proud of you.""Do you think so, mother?" " he said, enraptured with the notion. "I've done my best--or my worst--not to give her any reason to be so.""She doesn't 'want any--the less the better. You silly boy! Don't you suppose she wants to make you out of whole cloth just as you do with her?

She doesn't want any facts to start with; they'd be in the way. Well, now, I can make out, with your help, what the young lady is; but what are the father and mother? They're rather important in these cases.""Oh, they're the nicest kind of people," said Dan, in optimistic generalisation. "You'd like Mrs. Pasmer. She's awfully nice.""Do you say that because you think I wouldn't?" asked his mother. "Isn't she rather sly and hum-bugging?""Well, yes, she is, to a certain extent," Dan admitted, with a laugh.

"But she doesn't mean any harm by it. She's extremely kind-hearted.""To you? I dare say. And Mr. Pasmer is rather under her thumb?""Well, yes, you might say thumb," Dan consented, feeling it useless to defend the Pasmers against this analysis.

"We won't say heel," returned his mother; "we're too polite. And your father says he had the reputation in college of being one of the most selfish fellows in the world. He's never done anything since but lose most of his money. He's been absolutely idle and useless all his days."She turned her vivid blue eyes suddenly upon her son's.

Dan winced. "You know how hard father is upon people who haven't done anything. It's a mania of his. Of course Mr. Pasmer doesn't show to advantage where there's no--no leisure class.""Poor man!"

Dan was going to say, "He's very amiable, though," but he was afraid of his mother's retorting, "To you?" and he held his peace, looking chapfallen.

Whether his mother took pity on him or not, her next sally was consoling.

"But your Alice may not take after either of them. Her father is the worst of his breed, it seems; the rest are useful people, from what your father knows, and there's a great deal to be hoped for collaterally. She had an uncle in college at the same time who was everything that her father was not.""One of her aunts is in one of those Protestant religious houses in England," repeated Dan.

"Oh!" said his mother shortly, "I don't know that I like that particularly. But probably she isn't useless there. Is Alice very religious?""Well, I suppose," said Dan, with a smile for the devotions that came into his thought, " she's what would be called 'Piscopal pious."Mrs. Mavering referred to the photograph, which she still held in her hand. "Well, she's pure and good, at any rate. I suppose you look forward to a long engagement?"Dan was somewhat taken aback at a supposition so very contrary to what was in his mind. "Well, I don't know. Why?""It might be said that you are very young. How old is Agnes--Alice, Imean?"

"Twenty-one. But now, look here, mother! It's no use considering such a thing in the abstract, is it?""No," said his mother, with a smile for what might be coming.

"This is the way I've been viewing it; I may say it's the way Alice has been viewing it--or Mrs. Pasmer, rather.""Decidedly Mrs. Pasmer, rather. Better be honest, Dan.""I'll do my best. I was thinking, hoping, that is, that as I'm going right into the business--have gone into it already, in fact--and could begin life at once, that perhaps there wouldn't be much sense in waiting a great while.""Yes?"

"That's all. That is, if you and father are agreed." He reflected upon this provision, and added, with a laugh of confusion and pleasure: "It seems to be so very much more of a family affair than I used to think it was.""You thought it concerned just you and her?" said his mother, with arch sympathy.

"Well, yes."

"Poor fellow! She knew better than that, you may be sure. At any rate, her mother did.""What Mrs. Pasmer doesn't know isn't probably worth knowing," said Dan, with an amused sense of her omniscience.