"Then that falls through," said Jo. "Give it up, Miss Helen."
"My dears, she's plain, dyed-in-the-wool, United States American, from Chelsea, Massachusetts."
"Oh, oh," came a chorus of laughing exclamations. "The very idea! How did you find it out?"
"I encountered her on my way down-stairs this morning, and she asked me if I knew where she could find a second-hand book-shop. I happened to know of one and I told her. We were going in the same direction and we walked together a little way."
"Is she any kind of an anything?" asked Jack.
"That is rather a vague question," said Miss Helen. "Couldn't you be a little more exact, Jack dear?"
"I mean is she a doctor or a teacher or anything like that? She looks like she might be something besides just a plain woman."
"She certainly is a plain enough woman," remarked Nan with a laugh.
"She didn't mention that she had a profession, though I think she is here for a special purpose, perhaps," Miss Helen told them.
"American," said Jo reminiscently; "that's the limit. It shows that one can never tell. Why, we might have discussed our most intimate affairs before her, and never have dreamed she could understand a word of what we said."