One evening, after a day of bitter-sweet reveries of Jessie, Lemuel
went to see Statira. She and 'Manda Grier were both very gay, and
made him very welcome. They had tea for him; Statira tried all her
little arts, and 'Manda Grier told some things that had happened in
the box-factory. He could not help laughing at them; they were
really very funny; but he felt somehow that it was all a preparation
for something else. At last the two girls made a set at him, as
'Manda Grier called it, and tried to talk him into their old scheme
of going to wait on table at some of the country hotels, or the
seaside. They urged that now, while he was out of a place, it was
just the time to look up a chance.
He refused, at first kindly, and at last angrily; and he would have
gone away in this mood if Statira had not said that she would never
say another word to him about it, and hung upon his neck, while
'Manda Grier looked on in sullen resentment. He came away sick and
heavy at heart. He said to himself that they would be willing to
drag him into the mire; they had no pride; they had no sense; they
did not know anything and they could not learn. He tried to get away
from them to Miss Carver in his thoughts; but the place where he had
left her was vacant, and he could not conjure her back. Out of the
void, he was haunted by a look of grieving reproach and wonder from
her eyes.
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