Page:Saxe Holm's Stories, Series Two.djvu/365

Rh she had never discovered it fallible; and many a man had in his heart reverently thanked Susan Sweetser for having graciously and kindly made it clear to him that he must not love her. But this Tom was not on a footing to be dealt with by the subtle processes which told on a less familiar friend. If he had been Bell's own brother, Bell could not have trusted him or loved him more, or have given him mere unqualifiedly the freedom of the house. That she never once thought of the possibility of his falling in love with Susan was owing partly to the quiet, middle-aged seriousness of his manner and ways, partly to her absorption in her anxiety about Professor Balloure's relation to Susan, and hers to him. And so the months went on, and the girls lived their gay and busy life, and every hour that could be spared from his business, Tom was with them, as unquestionedly and naturally as if he had been their legal protector. Indeed it was not in frequently supposed by strangers, that he was the head of the house.

Susan was uneasy. She was distressed. She had come to have so true an affection for Tom that the thought of having to inflict on him at some not very distant day so cruel a hurt as to refuse his love was terrible to her.

"If only he could know beforehand," she said, "he could leave off loving me just as well as not. He is one of those quiet, undemonstrative men that can make up their mind to love any woman that they think best to love."