“Oh, if you had been away from your sweetheart for so long a time as I have been from mine”—
“Ha! ha! ha! ha!” laughed Mrs. Harris. “Why, Virginia dear, only two weeks! Really you carry me back to my own girlish days, just after I met James—I remember well—my heart nearly fluttered out of its place.”
“My heart fluttered out of its place weeks and weeks ago, and will not flutter back, unless”—
“Unless what, dear?”
“Unless he despises it,” she said, with a sigh.
“Well, the dear boy is pining to see you. That I know, so there is a pair of you.”
“Is he getting thin?” questioned Virginia, eagerly.
“Not exactly, but—listen!” And Mrs. Harris held up a warning finger as she looked out over the piazza.
“He is coming!”
“Oh, dear!” exclaimed Virginia, in an ecstacy of joy. “I shall hide and surprise him. Oh! his favorites have wilted. I will pluck fresh ones in the conservatory, and hasten back—don’t tell!” and with that she flew out of the room through the portieres.