"Good-by, Miss Crabb, I wish you great success," he responded, cordially taking her hand. It was the best he could do.
"Thank you," she quickly replied. "I am determined to deserve success, at least; but it is a long way off, I sometimes fear." She turned to go to the waiting carriage, but faced him again and added: "This has been a most charming experience to me. What a sweet, restful life it must be living here. I almost envy--I almost covet Mrs. Ransom's lot. I have had such a hard----," but she did not finish the sentence. "Good-by," she repeated, and went away.
Moreton felt a pang of sympathy for this poor girl, though he had no very definite idea of what her struggles, her hopes and her failures might be. It was enough for him to know that she was good and honest and earnest, and that she felt the hardship of some galling limitations.
"Will she ever come to any thing? Is there really any chance for a person like her in this country?" he inquired of Miss Noble a little later, as he sat by her side on a rustic seat under some trees by the river.
"She may make a hit, as it is termed," was the answer. "Some of them do, and then, if she will make the most of it, she may get to where life is easier; but at best she can not hope for much."
"It seems queer and pitiful to me," he said, after a moment of thoughtfulness, "that so good and kind a girl as she evidently is should have to do such things. Her situation has deeply touched me."
"That is because you haven't been used to it. Young ladies probably do not report for the press in England," replied Cordelia. "It is a very common thing for them to do it here."
Moreton smiled, as one who gives up a sentiment rather reluctantly is apt to do, and said:
"Still I would rather not see it; she appeared out of place, somehow."
"She was quite out of place here; but she has become so used to overcoming such obstacles that she easily evaded any sense of the impropriety of invading the privacy of General DeKay's----
"No, I beg your pardon," hastily spoke up Moreton. "You do her wrong. She _did_ feel very keenly that she was _de trop_, that she wasn't just free and welcome, don't you know. I saw it--she almost acknowledged it to me, in fact, and I felt downright sorry for her."