She is pretty; but it is not that. She is intelligent; but it is not that. And she has high animal spirits and graceful vivacity; but neither is it these. No; and I doubt if I can specify precisely what it is. Yet I should be able to analyze her, if anybody can; because towards her as towards the rest of mankind I occupy the position of an outsider and dispassionate observer merely. Moreover, I have a motive for making the analysis,—that, in my rôle of general care-taker of the family, I must determine whether or not she be a fit and proper person to become Mrs. Mainwaring and thus to relegate mother to the position of dowager. For there is no doubt that John will marry her if he can; and, after making all due allowance for the waywardness of a maiden's fancy, it would not do to build too confidently on the probability of her rejecting a generous-hearted, fine-looking, infatuated young fellow with sixty thousand a year to his fortune. At all events, I shall make it my business to improve my acquaintance with her; and the fact that she evidently regards me as an inoffensive and rather agreeable person renders the execution of my design all the easier.
She came upon us as abruptly and unexpectedly as an asteroid out of infinite space. We had finished dinner more than an hour before, and mother and I were sitting on the veranda, enjoying the evening breeze and fighting off an occasional mosquito. John, I presume, was hobnobbing with Tom the groom in the harness-room. There was the sound of carriage-wheels far down the drive; and one of the dogs barked. There was no moon, and it was too dark to see the carriage until it was almost at hand. Then it turned out to be a hack from the village railway-station.
"It must be some person in answer to my advertisement for a maid," exclaimed my mother, in an undertone. "What an extraordinary proceeding! You must tell the people at the livery-stable, Frank, never to allow people to come upon us in this way."
I said, "Apparently the person means to take the place. Her trunk is on behind."
"That is sufficient," mother replied. "I shall not take her!"
Meantime, the hackman had descended from the box and opened the carriage door. A rather tall female figure got out. At a sign from mother, I went down the steps of the veranda and met her. I saw that she was young and well dressed. She did not look like a "person."
"Are you Mr. Mainwaring?" she asked, in a deep but very agreeable voice.
"I am Frank Mainwaring," I said. "Did you wish to see my mother?"
