spare.'
'That was all I meant. He once had occasion to allude to his property, but he was so modest, so reserved in the tone he took about it, that one hardly knew what to think.'
'He is ashamed of being rich,' said Bernard. 'He would be sure to represent everything unfavorably.'
'That 's just what I thought!' This ejaculation was more eager than Mrs. Vivian might have intended, but even had it been less so, Bernard was in a mood to appreciate it. 'I felt that we should make allowances for his modesty. But it was in very good taste,' Mrs. Vivian added.
'He 's a fortunate man,' said Bernard. 'He gets credit for his good taste—and he gets credit for the full figure of his income as well!'
'Ah,' murmured Mrs. Vivian, rising lightly, as if to make her words appear more casual, 'I don't know the full figure of his income.'
She was turning away, and Bernard, as he raised his hat and separated from her, felt that it was rather cruel that he should let her go without enlightening her ignorance. But he said to himself that she knew quite enough. Indeed, he took a walk along the Lichtenthal Alley and carried out this line of reflection. Whether or no Miss Vivian were in love with Gordon Wright, her mother was enamored of Gordon's fortune, and it had suddenly occurred to her that instead of treating the friend of her daughter's suitor with civil mistrust, she would help her case better by giving him a hint of her state of mind and appealing to his sense of propriety. Nothing could be more natural than that Mrs. Vivian should suppose that Bernard desired his friend's success; for, as our thoughtful hero said to himself, what she had hitherto taken it into her head to fear was not that Bernard should fall in love with her daughter, but that her daughter should fall in love with him. Watering-place life is notoriously conducive to idleness of mind, and Bernard strolled for half an hour along the overarched avenue, glancing alternately at these two insupposable cases.
A few days afterward, late in the evening, Gordon Wright came to his room at the hotel.
'I have just received a letter from my sister,' he said. 'I am afraid I shall have to go away.'
'Ah, I 'm sorry for that,' said Bernard, who was so well pleased with the actual that he desired no mutation.
'I mean only for a short time,' Gordon explained. 'My poor sister writes from England, telling me that my brother-in-law is suddenly obliged to go home. She has decided not to remain behind, and they are to sail a fortnight hence. She wants very much to see me before she goes, and as I don't know when I shall see her again, I feel as if I ought to join her immediately and spend the interval with her. That will take about a fortnight.'
'I appreciate the sanctity of family ties and I project myself into your situation,' said Bernard. 'On the other hand, I don't envy you a breathless journey from Baden to Folkestone.'
'It 's the coming back that will be breathless,' exclaimed Gordon, smiling.
'You will certainly come back, then?'
'Most certainly. Mrs. Vivian is to be here another month.'
'I understand. Well, we shall miss you very much.'
Gordon Wright looked for a moment at his companion.
'You will stay here, then? I am so glad of that.'
'I was taking it for granted; but on reflection—what do you recommend?'
'I recommend you to stay.'
'My dear fellow, your word is law,' said Bernard.
'I want you to take care of those ladies,' his friend went on. 'I don't like to leave them alone.'
'You are joking!' cried Bernard. 'When did you ever hear of my 'taking care' of any one? It 's as much as I can do to take care of myself.'
'This is very easy,' said Gordon. 'I simply want to feel that they have a man about them.'
'They will have a man at any rate—they have the devoted Lovelock.'
'That 's just why I want them to have another. He has only an eye to Miss Evers, who, by the way, is extremely bored with him. You look after the others. You have made yourself very agreeable to them, and they like you extremely.'
'Ah,' said Bernard, laughing, 'if you are going to be coarse and flattering, I collapse. If you are going to titillate my vanity, I succumb.'
'It won't be so disagreeable,' Gordon observed, with an intention vaguely humorous.
'Oh no, it won't be disagreeable. I will go to Mrs. Vivian every morning, hat in hand, for my orders.'
Gordon Wright, with his hands in his pockets and a meditative expression, took several turns about the room.
'It will be a capital chance,' he said, at last, stopping in front of his companion.
'A chance for what?'
'A chance to arrive at a conclusion about my young friend.'
Bernard gave a gentle groan.
'Are you coming back to that? Did n't I arrive at a conclusion long ago? Did n't I tell you she was a delightful girl?'
'Do you call that a conclusion? The first comer could tell me that at the end of an hour.'
'Do you want me to invent something different?' Bernard asked. 'I can't invent anything better.'
