He never visits the old place without thinking of that day when he heard
Bessie Gibbs raising her voice in laments over the impending fate of her
darling Angora kitten, and the memory always brings a smile to Dick's
face.
Bessie is now finishing her schooling at a college; but she and Dick
correspond faithfully, and during vacation times they seem inseparable.
He still thinks her the prettiest and sweetest of her sex, and as for
Bessie--well, it hardly seems fair to peep into the sacred recesses of a
young girl's heart, but she is never one half so happy as when with
Dick, and whenever she looks at the little scar on the back of his left
hand she shudders, remembering that fearful day when he burst in upon
them just in the nick of time, and in his usual energetic way quickly
extinguished what might have been a serious conflagration.
Mr. Gibbs, of course, has his eyes about him and understands what this
intimacy is bound to end in eventually; but he seems perfectly satisfied
that it should be so.
He cannot expect to keep his darling child with him always, and since
these things must be he is content with the way events have come about.
The wise man who could read boy character as well as he did on that
never-to-be-forgotten day when he sent Dick, still resting under
suspicion in connection with the missing securities, out to his home to
bring back a valuable packet, feels confident that he has made no
mistake, and that he can trust the happiness of Bessie to his keeping.
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