“But the girl, if he tells the truth, is the right kind of stuff, staying at home, caring for her father, wearing shabby clothes, and even washing the dishes, which I have no doubt hurts him the most.  I rather like this girl, and for her sake I will give Neil a chance, though I don’t suppose he will accept it.  There are those cotton mills which I had to take on that debt of Carson’s.  They have been nothing but a torment to me for the want of a capable man to look after them.  I will offer the situation to Neil with a salary of two thousand dollars a year, and ten per cent. of the net profits, and I will let him have, rent free, the house which Carson occupied, and will furnish it, too, and have everything in running order when he gets here with his bride.  That I call a right generous offer, but, bless your soul, do you suppose he will take it?”

And she interrogated the fire, which made no response, except that a half dead coal dropped into the pan and went out into blackness.

“Of course he won’t,” she continued, “for that would be doing something!  But we shall see.  I will write the letter to-night,” and ringing for her writing materials the old lady began her letter to Neil, telling him what she would do for him if he chose to come to America and try to help himself.

“The work is not hard,” she wrote.  “It requires more thought, and judgment, and tact, than anything else, but it will bring you in contact with some very second-class people—­scum, if you choose to call them so—­and with some of the excellent of the earth as well for all grades are represented in the mills, and for what I know, the future Governor of Massachusetts is working there to-day; but if he is, you may be sure he has a book somewhere around and studies it every chance he gets, for in this way our best men are made.  If you do not choose to take my offer, I shall do nothing for you, and Bessie will be a fool to marry one who does not care enough for her to be willing to work and support her.  I have no intention of making her my heir.  My will is made, and I do not often change my mind.  Still, I have a fancy for the girl—­have always had a fancy for her, and if you bring her to me on the terms I offer, you will never be sorry.”

This last Miss Betsey wrote because of the desire which kept growing in her heart as once it had before, to look again in Bessie’s face, to hear her voice, to feel the touch of her hands; and in short, to have some one to love and be interested in, as something told her she could be interested in and love Bessie McPherson.

The letter was sent to Neil, and the same mail took another to a well-known banking house in London with which Miss McPherson had business relations.  To this house she gave instructions that the sum of one hundred pounds should at once be forwarded to Archibald McPherson, who was not on any account to know from whom the money came.

When her letters were gone she began again to build castles with regard to Bessie, whom she was expecting, in spite of her lack of confidence in Neil’s willingness to accept her offer.