"Very well," was his quiet reply, "you can remain at home if you
choose, of course. I had intended taking you myself, wherever you
wished to go; and not only that, but I was about to ask how much was
needed for the necessary additions to your wardrobe, but if you prefer
remaining here to giving up a most unfounded prejudice against a girl
who never harmed you, and whom Jessie already loves, you can do so,"
and Guy walked from the room, leaving Agnes first to cry, then to
pout, then to think it all over, and finally to decide that going to
Saratoga and Newport under the protection of Guy, was better than
carrying out a whim, which, after all, was nothing but a whim.
Accordingly next morning as Guy was in his library reading his papers,
she went tripping up to him, and folding her white hands upon his
shoulder, said, very prettily: "I was real cross last night, and let my foolish pride get the
ascendency, but I have considered the matter, and am willing for this
Miss Clyde to come, provided you still think it best."
Guy's mustache hid the mischievous smile lurking about his mouth, and
he received the concession as graciously as if he did not know
perfectly the motive which impelled it. As she had commenced being
amiable she seemed determined to continue it, and offered herself to
write a note soliciting Maddy's services, "As I am Jessie's mother, it will be perfectly proper for me to hire
and manage her," she said, and as Guy acquiesced in this suggestion,
she sat down at the writing desk, and commenced a very pleasantly
worded note, in which Miss Clyde was informed that she had been
recommended as a suitable person with whom to leave Jessie during the
summer and a part of the autumn, and that she, Jessie's mother, wrote
to ask if for the sum of one dollar per week she were at liberty to
come to Aikenside as governess, or waiting-maid.
"Or what?" Guy asked, as she read to him what she had written. "Maddy
Clyde will not be waiting-maid in this house, neither will she come
for one dollar per week as you propose. I hire her myself. I have
taken a fancy to the girl. Commence again; substitute companion for
waiting-maid, and offering her three dollars per week instead of one."
As long as Guy paid the bill Agnes could not demur to the price,
although remembering a time when she had taught a district school for
one dollar per week and boarded around besides. She thought three
dollars far too much. But Guy had commanded, and him she generally
obeyed, so she wrote another note, which he approved, and sealing it
up sent it by a servant down to the red cottage.