"I regret having spoken as I did," he began. "Such language is not my
custom. I was irritated because of your haste in rejecting my advances
before hearing the proposition I came to submit. I certainly respect
your evident desire to be of assistance to this young woman, nor have I
the slightest intention of interfering between you. Your act in
preserving her life was a truly noble one, and your loyalty to her
interests since is worthy of all Christian praise. But I believe I
have a right to ask, what do you intend for the future? Keep her with
you? Drag her about from camp to camp? Educate her among the
contaminating poison of gambling-holes and dance-halls? Is her home
hereafter to be the saloon and the rough frontier hotel? her ideal of
manhood the quarrelsome gambler, and of womanhood a painted harlot?
Mr. Hampton, you are evidently a man of education, of early refinement;
you have known better things; and I have come to you seeking merely to
aid you in deciding this helpless young woman's destiny. I thought, I
prayed, you would be at once interested in that purpose, and would
comprehend the reasonableness of my position."
Hampton sat silent, gazing out of the window, his eyes apparently on
the lights now becoming dimly visible in the saloon opposite. For a
considerable time he made no move, and the other straightened back in
his chair watching him.
"Well!" he ventured at last, "what is your proposition?" The question
was quietly asked, but a slight tremor in the low voice told of
repressed feeling.
"That, for the present at least, you confide this girl into the care of
some worthy woman."
"Have you any such in mind?"
"I have already discussed the matter briefly with Mrs. Herndon, wife of
the superintendent of the Golden Rule mines. She is a refined
Christian lady, beyond doubt the most proper person to assume such a
charge in this camp. There is very little in such a place as this to
interest a woman of her capabilities, and I believe she would be
delighted to have such an opportunity for doing good. She has no
children of her own."
Hampton flung his sodden cigar butt out of the window. "I'll talk it
over to-morrow with--with Miss Gillis," he said, somewhat gruffly. "It
may be this means a good deal more to me than you suppose, parson, but
I 'm bound to acknowledge there is considerable hard sense in what you
have just said, and I 'll talk it over with the girl."