Smith Westcott on the other.  And the latter generally carried the day in her sympathies.  He was such a poor dear fellow, you know, and hadn’t anybody, not even a mother, to comfort him, and he had often said that if his charming and divine little Katy should ever prove false, he would go and drown himself in the lake.  And that would be so awful, you know.  And, besides, Brother Albert had plenty to love him.  There was mother, and there was that quiet kind of a young lady at the City Hotel that Albert went to see so often, though how he could like anybody so cool she didn’t know.  And then Cousin Isa would love Brother Albert maybe, if he’d ask her.  But he had plenty, and poor Smith had often said that he needed somebody to help him to be good.  And she would cleave to him forever and help him.  Mother and father thought she was right, and she couldn’t anyway let Smith drown himself.  How could she?  That would be the same as murdering him, you know.

During the fortnight that Charlton and his sister visited in Glenfield, Albert divided his time between trying to impress Katy with the general unfitness of Smith Westcott to be her husband, and the more congenial employment of writing long letters to Miss Helen Minorkey, and receiving long letters from that lady.  His were fervent and enthusiastic; they explained in a rather vehement style all the schemes that filled his brain for working out his vocation and helping the world to its goal:  while hers discussed everything in the most dispassionate temper.  Charlton had brought himself to admire this dispassionate temper.  A man of Charlton’s temper who is really in love, can bring himself to admire any traits in the object of his love.  Had Helen Minorkey shown some little enthusiasm, Charlton would have exaggerated it, admired it, and rejoiced in it as a priceless quality.  As she showed none, he admired the lack of it in her, rejoiced in her entire superiority to her sex in this regard, and loved her more and more passionately every day.  And Miss Minorkey was not wanting in a certain tenderness toward her adorer.  She loved him in her way, it made her happy to be loved in that ideal fashion.

Charlton found himself in a strait betwixt two.  He longed to worship again at the shrine of his Minerva.  But he disliked to return with Katy until he had done something to break the hold of Smith Westcott upon her mind.  So upon one pretext or another he staid until Westcott wrote to Katy that business would call him to Glenfield the next week, and he hoped that she would conclude to return with him.  Katy was so pleased with the prospect of a long ride with her lover, that she felt considerable disappointment when Albert determined to return at once.  Brother Albert always did such curious things.  Katy, who had given Albert a dozen reasons for an immediate return, now thought it very strange that he should be in such a hurry.  Had he given up trying to find that new kind of grasshopper he spoke of the day before?