I remember a feeling of regret that
Professor Ellis should have so promptly volunteered to do your errand:
yet I did not know what I dreaded. I simply shrank from the man, and
wanted others to do so."
"Dr. Everett, what is his motive in showing her attention?"
"I wish I knew. I can tell you what I greatly fear: That it is to play
with the human heart; to see to what extent he can gain power over it.
And in this case certainly it is a most cruel thing. The girl has no
friends, no father or mother to advise with or help her. She is bright
and pretty, and is being shown glimpses of a world that seems to her
like fairyland. She is dazzled, and one cannot blame her, for she has
neither carefully-formed judgment nor trustworthy friends to lean upon.
Miss Dennis, you can judge from her manner this afternoon what is her
knowledge of the customs of polite society. I do not think she has an
idea that she was conspicuous, save for her beauty and the fine
appearance of her attendant. She is not one to shrink from what she
would consider legitimate public admiration, and this you can see but
adds to her danger."
"But, Dr. Everett, you do not think,--you cannot mean that he intends to
pay her special attention; that he means anything beyond the desire to
give her a little pleasure?"
"Well," said the doctor, speaking slowly, but with firmness, "you may
judge, Miss Dennis, what I think,--what any honorable person thinks,--of
a man who bestows in public the sort of attentions which we saw this
afternoon, You would have been insulted by them.
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