Ester Ried Yet Speaking | Page 3

ways of the great wicked world, and especially of those great wicked boys! What could he say to her?
He was so manifestly embarrassed that the small lady laughed.
"You think I cannot do it," she said, almost gayly.
He hastened to answer her.
"Indeed, you have no idea of the sort of class it is. I have given you no conception of it; I cannot. You would think yourself before a set of uncaged animals."
"Yes, and in case of failure I should only be where the others are, who have tried and failed. If you will introduce me, and your superintendent will let me, I mean to try; and that will relieve you of the dilemma of being entirely without a teacher for them."
Young Ried had nothing to say. He thought the attempt a piece of folly,--a worse than useless experiment; but how was he to say so to the wife of his employer?
That gentleman appeared just then, making haste.
"I was unavoidably detained," he explained; "I feared you would grow weary of waiting. Ah, Ried, my wife has introduced herself, I see. Is he the young man you were speaking of, Mrs. Roberts?"
"The very young man,--Ester Ried's brother. He doesn't know how glad I am to have met him. Some day when we are better acquainted, and you trust me more fully, I am going to tell you how I became so deeply interested in your dear sister. Meantime this little matter should be definitely settled. Mr. Roberts, I have invited myself to take a class to-morrow down at the South End Mission."
"Have you, indeed?"
Mr. Roberts spoke heartily, and seemed by no means dismayed,--only a trifle perplexed as to details.
"How can we manage it, Flossy? My prison class takes me in an opposite direction at the same hour, you know."
"Yes, I thought of that; I propose to ask Mr. Ried to call for me, and show me the way, and vouch for my good intentions after I reach there. Do you suppose he will do it?" She looked smilingly from her husband to young Ried, and both waited for his answer.
"I obey directions," he said, bowing respectfully to Mr. Roberts. "Am I to have the honor of being detailed for that service to-morrow?"
"So Mrs. Roberts says," was the good-humored reply, and then the merchant took his wife away to their waiting carriage that had drawn up before the door, leaving Alfred Ried, if the truth must be told, in a fume.
"Much she knows what she is talking about!" he said, jerking certain boxes out of their places on the shelves, and then banging them back again, seeming to suppose that he was by this process putting his department in order for closing. "Little bit of a dressed-up doll! They will tear her into ribbons, metaphorically, if not literally, before this time to-morrow! She thinks, because she is the wife of Evan Roberts, the great merchant, she can go anywhere and do anything, and that people will respect her. She has never had anything to do with a set of fellows who care less than nothing about money and position, except to be ten times more insolent and outrageous in their conduct than they would if she had less of it! I shall feel like a born idiot in presenting this pretty little doll to teach that class! Mr. Durant will think I have lost what few wits I had! What can possess the woman to want to try? It is just because she has no conception of what she is about! But Mr. Roberts must know--I wonder what he means by permitting it?"
In very much the same state of mind did our young man pilot his new and unsought-for recruit into the crowded mission rooms of the South End on the following Sabbath afternoon. She looked not one whit less able to compete with the terrors which awaited the teacher of the formidable class.
Her dress was simplicity itself, according to Mrs. Roberts' ideas of simplicity; yet, from the row of ostrich tips that bobbed and nodded at each other, all around the front of her velvet hat, to the buttons of her neat-fitting boots, she seemed to bring a new atmosphere into the room.
Yesterday's rain was over, and the pleasant south windows were aglow with sunshine. As Mrs. Roberts sat down the sunbeams came and played about her face, and she seemed in keeping with them, and with nothing else around her.
The superintendent bestowed curious glances on her during the opening exercises. He had seen the shadow on young Ried's face when he seated her, and had found time to question.
"Whom have we here?"
"Mrs. Evan Roberts. She wants to try the vacant class! I did not ask her, Mr. Durant; she invited herself."
Mr. Durant looked over at her, and tried to keep his