“Got too much to do now to think of girls,” he would return, with a laugh.
But perhaps neither his tone nor his laugh quite convinced Mrs. Fairbanks that all was right. She asked shrewdly on one occasion:
“Have you seen Miss Cherry lately?”
“Not for a week. I believe she expected to go away. I don’t know whether she has or has not gone.”
“Would you like to know, Ralph?” asked his mother softly.
At that the young fellow awoke to the discovery that his mother was looking at him queerly.
“Why, Mother!” he exclaimed, “you don’t suppose I care particularly about any of the Hopkins family?”
“I think you do about Cherry,” she returned. “And from what I have heard about her, she is well worth your caring for—in a friendly way, I mean.”
“My goodness! What is all this?” asked the wondering Ralph.
His mother smiled and shook her head at him.