"Only I am so grateful!"
"What makes you want to know people?" demanded Colonel Tracy, all the more gruffly because of the softening within.
"Why, father,—it is so sad to have no friends. So dismal and lonely. And how can one do kindnesses to others if one knows nobody?"
The Colonel scented a moral, and shrank into himself forthwith.
"Some afternoon" proved hard to find for the promised pleasure. One day, the Colonel would not go out. Another day, he had an engagement another direction. Another day it rained. So more than a week passed, and then a note came from Mrs. Effingham.
"DEAR MISS TRACY,—Will you not take tea with me this afternoon?
I want to make better acquaintance with my preserver; and I am
leaving town directly. Forgive informality.—Yours truly,"
"E. EFFINGHAM"
"P.S. No reply will mean that I may expect you at about four."
"May I go?" asked Dorothea, showing the note to her father.
Colonel Tracy noted with satisfaction that Mrs. Effingham would be going away.
"Well, if it has to be," he said. "But Mrs. Stirring must fetch you back. I don't mind if I drop you there."
