You and I have just made one that might have
cost us dear. Of course you will treat your cousin hereafter as
you please, but I most decidedly request that you do and say nothing
that involves any reference to me. I wish her to form her opinions
of my attitude towards her solely from her own observation."
"I think you are a trifle severe, but I suppose I deserve it," said
Stanton, stiffly.
"I admit that I am strongly moved. I do not excuse myself in the
least; and yet you know I was misled. I must tell you plainly that
Ida Mayhew is not a girl to be trifled with. I fear her mother
wholly fails in understanding her, and from what you yourself have
told me of her father, she has no help there. She has no brother,
and you should take the place of one, as far as possible. The
only right I have to speak thus is on the ground of the great wrong
I have done her, and for which I can never forgive myself. Miss
Mayhew and I are comparative strangers and our brief summer sojourn
here will soon be over. By mere accident facts have come to my
knowledge to-night which prove in the most emphatic manner, that
she requires kind, unobtrusive, but vigilant care.
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