“I say, Bertha, may I come back with you? I’m going back to school next week.”
“Of course you shall, if your mother likes.”
His mother was glad to agree. She did not feel inclined to discuss Mrs. Pickering with the boy that evening.
“Try and make him see what an awful woman she is,” she murmured.
“I will; but it isn’t dangerous,” laughed Bertha. “Madeline is spending the evening with me to-morrow.”
“Oh yes, that nice quiet girl. By the way, do you know, I heard she was engaged to young Charles Hillier. And then somewhere else I was told it was Mr. Rupert Denison.”
“It’s neither,” calmly replied Bertha, “But I believe each of them proposed to her.”
“Is that a fact? Dear me! Just fancy her refusing them both! What a grief for poor Mrs. Irwin!”
Bertha laughed as she remembered that as a matter of fact Madeline had accepted both, within two days.