Pitt walked along
silently too. He was at a careless age, but he was a generous-minded
fellow; and to a mind of that sort there is something exceedingly
attractive and an influence exceedingly powerful in the fact of being
trusted and depended on.

'Mother,' he said when he got home, 'I wish you would look after that
little girl now and then.'

'What little girl?'

'You must know whom I mean; the colonel's daughter.'

'The colonel is sufficient for that, I should say.'

'But you know what sort of a man he is. And she has no mother, nor
anybody else, except servants.'

'Isn't he fond of her?'

'Very fond; but then he isn't well, and he is a reserved, silent man;
the child is left to herself in a way that is bad for her.'

'What do you suppose I can do?'

'A great deal; if you once knew her and got fond of her, mother.'

Mrs. Dallas made no promise; however, she did go to see Esther. It was
about a week after Pitt's departure. She found father and daughter very
much as her son had found them the day he was introduced to the box of
coins. Esther was on the floor, beside the same box, and the colonel
was on his sofa. Mrs. Dallas did take the effect of the picture for
that moment before the colonel sprang up to receive her. Then she had
to do with a somewhat formal but courtly host, and the picture was
lost. The lady sat there, stately in her silks and laces, carrying on a
stiff conversation; for she and Colonel Gainsborough had few points of
sympathy or mutual understanding; and for a while she forgot Esther.
Then her eye again fell upon the child in her corner, sitting by her
box with a sad, uninterested air.

'And how is Esther?' she said, turning herself a little towards that
end of the room. 'Really I came to see Esther, colonel. How does she
do?'

'She is much obliged to you, and quite well, madam, I believe.'

'But she must want playmates, colonel. Why don't you send her to
school?'

'I would, if there were a good school at hand.'

'There are schools at New Haven, and Hartford, and Boston,--plenty of
schools that would suit you.'

'Only that, as you observe, they are at New Haven, and Hartford, and
Boston; out of my reach.'

'You couldn't do without her for a while?'

'I hardly think it; nor she without me. We are all, each of us, that
the other has.'

'Pitt used to give you lessons, didn't he?' the lady went on, turning
more decidedly to Esther. Esther rose and came near.

'Yes, ma'am.'