"If he really cares for me I will listen, and not refuse till I know
him well enough to decide. I'm tired of being alone, and should
enjoy ease and pleasure so much. He's going abroad for the winter,
and that would be charming. I'll try not to be worldly-minded and
marry without love, but it does look tempting to a poor soul like
me."

So Christie made up her mind to accept, if this promotion was
offered her; and while she waited, went through so many alternations
of feeling, and was so harassed by doubts and fears that she
sometimes found herself wishing it had never occurred to her.

Mr. Pletcher, meantime, with the help of many meditative cigars, was
making up his mind. Absence only proved to him how much he needed a
better time-killer than billiards, horses, or newspapers, for the
long, listless days seemed endless without the cheerful governess to
tone him up, like a new and agreeable sort of bitters. A gradually
increasing desire to secure this satisfaction had taken possession
of him, and the thought of always having a pleasant companion, with
no nerves, nonsense, or affectation about her, was an inviting idea
to a man tired of fashionable follies and tormented with the ennui
of his own society.

The gossip, wonder, and chagrin such a step would cause rather
pleased his fancy; the excitement of trying almost the only thing as
yet untried allured him; and deeper than all the desire to forget
the past in a better future led him to Christie by the nobler
instincts that never wholly die in any soul. He wanted her as he had
wanted many other things in his life, and had little doubt that he
could have her for the asking. Even if love was not abounding,