"Of course, and they are having a mock marriage in order to practise their parts. I hope we shall have no more marriages in the family, they are ruinously expensive, and make nothing but misery and anxiety."
Mrs. Campbell sighed, and lifted her eyes heaven-ward, but she did not remain with her son. She was really afraid to leave Isabel, for she looked almost distracted, and on the point of vision. "And I will not have it," she whispered to herself, "no, I will not. There shall be no prophecy of calamity in this house, whether from the dead or the living—not if mortal woman can help it."
She opened the dining-room door to this thought, and Isabel stayed her rapid walk and asked anxiously, "Well, mother?"
"Your brother says there is no occasion to worry. He made out a very clear case of the circumstance," and she explained his supposition concerning Christina's and Marion Brodie's visit together to Netta Galbraith.
Isabel shook her head. "That is not it," she answered positively.
"He advised us to go to bed."
"I will not until Christina returns, or Robert does something to clear up her failure to come."
"How do you feel?"
"Unquiet and unhappy. Mother, something extraordinary has happened."
"I hope you are not seeing things."