"There is nothing for me to do."
"That cannot be," said she, shaking her head.
"Propose something."
"You have no need to work for yourself," she said; "so it must be for other people. Say politics."
"If ever there was anything carried on purely for selfish interests, it is the business you name."
"The more need for some men to go into it _not_ for self, but for the country."
"It"s a Maelstrom; one would be sure to get drawn in. And it is a dirty business. You know the proverb about touching pitch."
"It need not be so, Philip."
"It brings one into disgusting contact and a.s.sociations. My cigar is better."
"It does n.o.body any good except the tobacconist. And, Philip, it helps this habit of careless letting everything go, which you have got into."
"I take care of myself, and of my money," he said.
"Men ought to live for more than to take care of themselves."
"I was just trying to take care of somebody else, and you head me off!
You should encourage a fellow better. One must make a beginning. And I _would_ like to be of use to somebody, if I could."
"Go on," she said, with her faint smile again. "How do you propose that I shall meet the increased expenditures of your Connecticut paradise?"
"You would like it?" he said eagerly.
"I cannot tell. But if the people are as pleasant as the place--it would be a paradise. Still, I cannot afford to live in paradise, I am afraid."
"You have only heard half my plan. It will cost you nothing. You have heard only what you are to get--not what you are to give."
"Let me hear. What am I to give?"
"The benefits of your knowledge of the world, and knowledge of literature, and knowledge of languages, to two persons who need and are with out them all."
""Two persons." What sort of persons?"
"Two of the daughters I spoke of."
Mrs. Barclay was silent a minute, looking at him.
"Whose plan is this?"
"Your humble servant"s. As I said, one must make a beginning; and this is my beginning of an attempt to do good in the world."
"How old are these two persons?"
"One of them, about eighteen, I judge. The other, a year or two older."
"And they wish for such instruction?"
"I believe they would welcome it. But they know nothing about the plan--and must not know," he added very distinctly, meeting Mrs.
Barclay"s eyes with praiseworthy steadiness.
"What makes you think they would be willing to pay for my services, then? Or, indeed, how could they do it?"
"They are not to do it. They are to know nothing whatever about it.
They are not able to pay for any such advantages. Here comes in the benevolence of my plan. You are to do it for _me_, and I am to pay the worth of the work; which I will do to the full. It will much more than meet the cost of your stay in the house. You can lay up money," he said, smiling.
"Phil," said Mrs. Barclay, "what is behind this very odd scheme?"
"I do not know that anything--beyond the good done to two young girls, and the good done to you."
"It is not that," she said. "This plan never originated in your regard for my welfare solely."
"No. I had an eye to theirs also."
"_Only_ to theirs and mine, Phil?" she asked, bending a keen look upon him. He laughed, and changed his position, but did not answer.
"Philip, Philip, what is this?"
"You may call it a whim, a fancy, a notion. I do not know that anything will ever come of it. I could wish there might--but that is a very cloudy and misty chateau en Espagne, and I do not much look at it. The present thing is practical. Will you take the place, and do what you can for these girls?"
"What ever put this thing in your head?"
"What matter, if it is a good thing?"
"I must know more about it. Who are these people?"
"Connections of Mrs. Wishart. Perfectly respectable."
"_What_ are they, then?"
"Country people. They belong, I suppose, to the farming population of a New England village. That is very good material."
"Certainly--for some things. How do they live--by keeping boarders?"
"Nothing of the kind! They live, I suppose,--I don"t know how they live; and I do not care. They live as farmers, I suppose. But they are poor."
"And so, without education?"
"Which I am asking you to supply."
"Phil, you are interested in one of these girls?"