Glory of Youth | Page 6

had been no response to his call from below, and when he
reached the upper landing he found the door shut. He knocked and
presently Bettina came. He saw at a glance that she had been crying.
"I can stay only a minute," he said. "I haven't had much sleep since I
saw you yesterday."
"I'll make you some tea," she offered, but he stopped her with a quick,
"No, no,--I've just had coffee, and I must get home."

They sat down, somewhat stiffly, on opposite sides of the hearth.
"What made you cry?" he asked, with his keen eyes on her downcast
face.
"Everything--the rain yesterday--the fog to-day. I wish the sun would
shine--I wish--I were--dead----"
With a sharp exclamation, he stood up. "You're too young to say such
things--there's all of life before you."
"Yes," she said dully, "there's all of life----"
To him she was a most appealing figure. Her weakness seemed to stand
out against the background of his strength. Suddenly he held out his
hands to her. "Come here, Betty child," he said, using, unconsciously,
the little captain's name for her, "come here."
Some new note in his voice made her cheeks flame, but she obeyed him.
He took both of her hands in his. "I've been thinking of you, and your
future. Somehow I can't see you, a little slip of a thing like you, being
beaten and bruised by the hard things of life. The world is cruel and
you are so--sweet. You need some one to take care of you----"
"Yes," she whispered; "but there isn't any one."
"Except me. And I'm such an old fellow--years too old for you. But I'm
alone, and you're alone. Could I make you happy, Betty child?"
She stared at him, all the bright color gone from her face.
"Why, how?" Her voice fluttered and died.
"As my wife. There's the big house on the rocks that I am building."
He faltered. The great house had been built for Diana, on a sudden
hopeful impulse that when it was finished she would consent to be its
mistress.

"There's the big house," he went on, after a moment, "and there's
money enough and to spare. Not that I want you to marry me for that,
but I think I could comfort you in your loneliness, Bettina."
In her secluded girlhood there had been no opportunity for masculine
adoration; hence there seemed nothing lacking when this man of men,
whose coming during her mother's illness had made the one bright spot
in her day, whose sympathy had comforted her in her sorrow, whose
friendship had sustained her in the months which had followed her
great loss, when he spoke of marriage with never a word of love.
"But I'm not wise enough or good enough," she said, with a quick catch
of her breath.
He drew her to him, holding her gently.
"Would you like," he asked, "would you like to think that all your life I
should take care of you?"
She lay quietly, not answering for a while, then she whispered, "Do you
really want me?"
Perhaps his arm relaxed a little, but his voice was very steady. "I really
want to make you happy."
"And you'll let me love you with all my heart?" Her eyes were hidden.
He put his hand against the softness of her hair, turning her face up
toward him. "I shall hope that you may love me with all your heart, and
that I may be worthy of it."
Her hand crept up and touched his cheek. "Kiss me," she whispered,
like a child.
He would have been less than a man if his heart had not leaped a little,
if he had not responded to the love call of this wistful white and gold
woman creature.
"My dear," he said, brokenly, and bent his head.

On the foggy streets below men and women passed and repassed like
ghosts in the stillness. Little Miss Matthews, meeting Captain Stubbs
on a street corner, was unconscious of his nearness until the little
captain, guided by that sixth sense, which is given to sailors for their
protection at sea, hailed her.
"You needn't hurry home," he told her; "that Betty child don't want you.
Dr. Blake is there. That's his car."
"He was there yesterday," said Miss Matthews, disturbed by the
doctor's departure from his usual routine.
"And he'll probably be there to-morrow; he's getting sweet on that
Betty child, Miss Mattie."
"Oh, dear, no," said the shocked Miss Matthews. "Why, he's in love
with Diana Gregory."
The captain gazed at her blankly. "You don't mean it," he protested.
"Yes, I do," said Miss Matthews; "they've known each other all their
lives. But she doesn't want to settle down."
"Well, she'd better look out," said the