A Philanthropist | Page 9

of approval; and just as one is about to reap the well-earned reward--a smile, a word of appreciation--all is forfeited! It is hard indeed! Would you suggest the rearrangement of the Rooms under Mr. Waters's direction? Thompson is at his service--"
"Oh, Mr. Welles!" she sighed hopelessly. "It isn't only that! It's not alone the room, though Mrs. Underwood wonders that I should think she would be able to conduct the Band of Hope in here, and Mrs. Rider says that after what her husband told her she should no more think of sitting here for a mothers' meeting than anything in the world. It's the whole thing. Why did you treat them all to lemonade the first day? Surely you knew that our one aim is to prevent miscellaneous charity. And Tom says you smoked in here--he smelt it."
"I smelt him, too," remarked the director calmly. "That was one reason why I smoked."
"And--and having Kitty and Annabel here all the time! The Girls' Club are so j---- Well, the Girls' Club like the old rooms better, they say, and it's so difficult to get them to work together at best. And now we shall have to work so hard--
"And the men think it's just a joke, the lemonade and everything, and the room gave them such a wrong impression, and they don't seem to want it, anyway. Tom Waters says he can't abide sarsaparilla--"
"Great heavens!" the director broke in, "is it possible? A point on which Mr. Waters's opinion coincides with mine? I have not lived in vain! But this is too much; I have not deserved--"
"Oh, don't!" she begged. "There is more. When I corrected Annabel for what I had heard about her--her impertinent behavior, she said that Mrs. Underwood had never approved of the whole thing, and that if I had consulted her she would never have given her consent to your being here, and that I was dictatorial--I!"
Her lodger coughed and ejaculated, "You, indeed!"
"And when I said that their ingratitude actually made me wonder why I worked so hard for them, she said--oh, dear! It is all dreadful! I don't know what to do!"
"I do!" returned her lodger promptly. "Go away and leave 'em! They aren't fit to trouble you any more. Besides, they're really not so bad, after all, you know. There has to be just about so much laziness and--and that sort of thing, don't you see. Look at me, for instance! Think of how much misdirected energy I balance! And it gives other people something to do.... Go away and leave it all for a while!" he repeated smilingly.
"Go away! But where? Why should I? What do you mean?" she stammered, confused at something in his eyes, which never left her face.
"To England--you said you'd like to see it. With me--for I certainly couldn't stay here alone. Why do you suppose I stay, dear lady? I used to wonder myself. No, sit still, don't get up! I am about to make you an offer of marriage; indeed, I am serious, Miss Gould!
"I don't see that it's ridiculous at all. I see every practical reason in favor of it. In the first place, if they are gossiping--oh, yes, Thompson told me, and I wonder that they hadn't before: these villages are dreadful places--I couldn't very well stay, you see; and then where should I put all my things? In the second place, I have so much stuff, and there's no house fit for it but--but ours; and if we were married I could have just twice as much room for it--and I'm getting far too much for my side. In the third place, I find that I can't look forward with any pleasure to travelling about alone, because, in the fourth place, I've grown so tremendously fond of you, dear Miss Gould! I think you don't dislike me?"
She plucked the guitar strings nervously with her white, strong fingers. The rich, vibrating tones of it filled the room and confused her still more.
"People will say that I--that we--" He caught her hand: it had never been kissed before. "Would you rather I went away and then there would be nothing left for them to say?" he asked softly.
She caught her breath.
"I'm too--"
"You are too charming not to have some one who appreciates the fact as thoroughly as I do," he interrupted gallantly. "I think you do me so much good, you know," he added, still holding her hand. She looked at him directly for the first time.
"Do I really? Is that true?" she demanded, with a return of her old manner so complete and sudden as to startle him. "If I thought that--"
"You would?" he asked with a smile. "I thought so! Here is a village that scorns your efforts and a respectful suitor who implores