Two Letters

"Same here," laughed Kate. "He said he had to be sure about his
mother, and there was 'one other thing' he'd write me about this
week, and he'd come again next Sunday; then if things were all
right with me -- the deluge!"

"And what is 'the other thing?'" asked Nancy Ellen.

"There he has me guessing. We had six, long, lovely weeks of
daily association at the lake, I've seen his home, and his
inventions, and as much of his business as is visible to the eye
of a woman who doesn't know a tinker about business. His mother
has told me minutely of his life, every day since he was born, I
think. She insists that he never paid the slightest attention to
a girl before, and he says the same, so there can't be any hidden
ugly feature to mar my joy. He is thoughtful, quick, kind, a
self-made business man. He looks well enough, he acts like a
gentleman, he seldom makes a mistake in speech --"

"He doesn't say enough to MAKE any mistakes. I haven't yet heard
him talk freely, give an opinion, or discuss a question," said
Nancy Ellen.

"Neither have I," said Kate. "He's very silent, thinking out more
inventions, maybe. The worst thing about him is a kind of hard-
headed self-assurance. He got it fighting for his mother from
boyhood. He knew she would freeze and starve if he didn't take
care of her; he HAD to do it. He soon found he could. It took
money to do what he had to do. He got the money. Then he began
performing miracles with it. He lifted his mother out of poverty,
he dressed her 'in purple and fine linen,' he housed her in the
same kind of home other rich men of the Lake Shore Drive live in,
and gave her the same kind of service. As most men do, when
things begin to come their way, he lived for making money alone.
He was so keen on the chase he wouldn't stop to educate and
culture himself; he drove headlong on, and on, piling up more, far
more than any one man should be allowed to have; so you can see
that it isn't strange that he thinks there's nothing on earth that
money can't do. You can see THAT sticking out all over him. At
the hotel, on boats, on the trains, anywhere we went, he pushed
straight for the most conspicuous place, the most desirable thing,
the most expensive. I almost prayed sometimes that in some way he
would strike ONE SINGLE THING that he couldn't make come his way
with money; but he never did. No. I haven't an idea what he has
in his mind yet, but he's going to write me about it this week,
and if I agree to whatever it is, he is coming Sunday; then he has
threatened me with a 'deluge,' whatever he means by that."