dear?" and startled by the
audacity of her comparison she appealed to Miss Garland--"the goose, or
the hen, who hatched a swan's egg. I have never been able to give him
what he needs. I have always thought that in more--in more brilliant
circumstances he might find his place and be happy. But at the same time
I was afraid of the world for him; it was so large and dangerous and
dreadful. No doubt I know very little about it. I never suspected, I
confess, that it contained persons of such liberality as yours."

Rowland replied that, evidently, she had done the world but scanty
justice. "No," objected Miss Garland, after a pause, "it is like
something in a fairy tale."

"What, pray?"

"Your coming here all unknown, so rich and so polite, and carrying off
my cousin in a golden cloud."

If this was badinage Miss Garland had the best of it, for Rowland almost
fell a-musing silently over the question whether there was a possibility
of irony in that transparent gaze. Before he withdrew, Mrs. Hudson made
him tell her again that Roderick's powers were extraordinary. He had
inspired her with a clinging, caressing faith in his wisdom. "He will
really do great things," she asked, "the very greatest?"

"I see no reason in his talent itself why he should not."

"Well, we 'll think of that as we sit here alone," she rejoined. "Mary
and I will sit here and talk about it. So I give him up," she went on,
as he was going. "I 'm sure you 'll be the best of friends to him,
but if you should ever forget him, or grow tired of him, or lose your
interest in him, and he should come to any harm or any trouble, please,
sir, remember"--And she paused, with a tremulous voice.

"Remember, my dear madam?"

"That he is all I have--that he is everything--and that it would be very
terrible."

"In so far as I can help him, he shall succeed," was all Rowland could
say. He turned to Miss Garland, to bid her good night, and she rose and
put out her hand. She was very straightforward, but he could see that if
she was too modest to be bold, she was much too simple to be shy. "Have
you no charge to lay upon me?" he asked--to ask her something.

She looked at him a moment and then, although she was not shy, she
blushed. "Make him do his best," she said.

Rowland noted the soft intensity with which the words were uttered. "Do
you take a great interest in him?" he demanded.

"Certainly."

"Then, if he will not do his best for you, he will not do it