"Why, this young darky woman," he explained. "She left mine."
"Never mind," Alice laughed. "There's hope for you, papa. She hasn't gone forever!"
"I don't know about that," he said, not content with this impulsive assurance. "She looked like she is." And his remark, considered as a prediction, had begun to seem warranted before Gertrude's return with china preliminary to the next stage of the banquet.
Alice proved herself equal to the long gap, and rattled on through it with a spirit richly justifying her mother's praise of her as "always ready to smooth things over"; for here was more than long delay to be smoothed over. She smoothed over her father and mother for Russell; and she smoothed over him for them, though he did not know it, and remained unaware of what he owed her. With all this, throughout her prattlings, the girl's bright eyes kept seeking his with an eager gayety, which but little veiled both interrogation and entreaty—as if she asked: "Is it too much for you? Can't you bear it? Won't you please bear it? I would for you. Won't you give me a sign that it's all right?"
He looked at her but fleetingly, and seemed to
