Laurie had to be content with this, though he felt annoyed at having to
write a letter to a missionary. He felt he shouldn't know how to
address him.
"I'll send it to-night when I get home," he declared, "or no, I'll send
it now," and he sat down at the minister's desk, and scribbled a note.
It read: "Your friend Severn won't take anything himself for kindness
to me, so he's letting me send you this for your work. Here's wishing
you good luck." This he signed and handed to the minister with a
relieved air as if to say: "There! That's that!"
"You see," said Laurie getting up and taking his hat again, "I want to
come back here again and see your daughter. I may as well tell you I'm
crazy about your daughter."
"I see," said the minister gravely, albeit with a twinkle in his eye,
"The fact is I'm somewhat crazy about her myself. But in all kindness I
may as well tell you that you'll be wasting your time. She isn't your
kind you know."
"Oh, well," said Laurie with an assured shrug, "That's all right if I
don't mind, isn't it?"
"Well, no," said the minister smiling broadly now, "You forget that she
might mind, you know."
"I don't get you," said Laurie looking puzzled as he fitted on his
immaculate driving glove, "She might mind, what do you mean?"
"I mean that my daughter minds very much indeed whether her men friends
ask in a certain tone of voice for something to drink at
midnight, and use language such as you used when you first arrived
here, smoke continual cigarettes, and have friends like the young woman
who visited you last Sunday."
"Oh! I see!" laughed Laurie thoroughly amused, "Well, after all, one
doesn't have to keep on doing all those things you know--if it were
worth one's while to change them."
"I'm afraid," said the minister still amused, "that it would have to be
worth your while to change before she would even consider you as a
possibility. She happens to have a few ideas about what it takes to
make a man, her ideal man, you know."
Laurie smiled gaily: "Perhaps I can change those ideas."
"Help yourself young man. You'll find it a task, I assure you."
"Well, I'm coming back, anyway."
"We shall welcome you," said the minister politely, but not at all
gladly, and Laurie departed without his usual complacency, assuring the
minister that he had found Sabbath Valley the garden spot of the world
and meant to return soon and often.