Page:Saxe Holm's Stories, Series Two.djvu/376

366 "Look at these last two years. Has Tom been out of your presence one hour when he could be in it?"

"No," said Sue. "That 's one way he 's brought me into this uncomfortable state about him. I 'm so used to him, I never could do without him in the world." "Of course you can't," said Bell; "and when I 'm married"—Bell's engagement to Mr. Ballister was now formally acknowledged "you can't go on living here alone; and as for your getting any 'lady companion' to live with you, that 's out of the question. You 'll never find another such saint as I 've been to put up with your ways. My! what I 've borne in these last five years! No, Miss, you 'd better take to yourself a husband, and of all the good, true, sterling men in this world, Tom 's the best, excepting Fred."

"I know it," said Sue, forlornly. "I told Professor Balloure not long ago that I trusted Tom more than I trusted any other man in the world."

"Did you?" cried Bell. "Did you say that to Edward Balloure? Oh, I 'm so glad. Oh, Sue, you 'll never know how I 've worried about that man's influence over you. I don't believe in him, and I never did, and if his wife had died any time, you 'd have married him as true as fate."

"I think not," said Susan, reflectively. "I am afraid I don't believe in him either, and yet it seems so horribly ungrateful after all he has done for me."