A Fair Emigrant, Chapters III-V [pp. 83-106]

A FAIR EMIGRANT.
CHAPTER V.
A WILFUL WOMAN.
THE next day Bawn made a journey into St. Paul to consult
her guardian.
Dr. Ackroyd had been her father's oldest friend in Minnesota,
and the only man who had ever approached to anything like intimacy with him. At a time when the doctor had been hardly
pressed by pecuniary troubles Desmond's generosity had laid
the foundation of his ultimate prosperity-a fact which he had
never forgotten.
"Doctor," said Bawn, walking into the snug room where he
and his wife were sitting, "I have come to talk to you on business. You know I am a woman of business capabilities nowtwenty-one years of age last month."
The doctor nodded. "Yes, yes; she has found it all out. I
was her guardian a month ago, Molly, but now she will be for
taking the bit in her own teeth, no doubt."
"I have a pretty good fortune, haven't I, Dr. Ackroyd?"
"As pretty a fortune as any young woman in America, I
should say at a guess; and that is saying much. Come, now,
what do you want to do? Trip away to Paris, and all the rest
of it?"
"And quite natural too, Andrew, at her age, and with such a
fortune and such a face!" said Mrs. Ackroyd, a motherly old
lady, with whom Bawn was a favorite.
The same thought was present in the minds of husband and
wife as they looked at Bawn's fine, fair face, with its grave sweetness and a certain majesty of womanly dignity which in her most
thoughtful moments sat on her brow. At such moments her coil
of golden hair looked like a royal crown. Now, as she gazed
into the fire, seeing something which they did not see, they easily
fancied her in brilliant rooms, shining in white satin or some
such raiment, with crowds of adorers hovering round her. They
knew the sort of thing that happens, well enough. Many a lovely
young heiress sails from America and gets turned into a countess
or a marquise before many summers have poured their choicest
flowers into her lap.
"Yes, I have been thinking of going to Europe," said Bawn,
"though not to Paris."
"It is the gayest place and the prettiest," said the doctor.
"Of course there are the summer resorts-"
"I was not thinking of gayety, nor even of prettiness," said
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