The new visitor was checked at the very threshold by Dolly's cry—
"Mr. Purling!"
And Harold stood confessed to his cousins without a chance of further disguise.
"Cousin Harold, you mean," he said, as he offered Dolly his hand.
She tried hard to hide her blushes; and then and there Mrs. Driver, after the manner of mothers, built up a great castle in the air, which her husband shook instantly to its foundations by asking unceremoniously and not without a shade of angry suspicion in his tone—
"Why did you not claim relationship this morning?"
He disliked the notion of a man stealing into his house under false colours.
"I waited for you to speak. You heard my name."
"I did not catch it clearly. Besides, I had never heard of you. None of us have. Your mother did not choose to recognise the relationship."
"She called you a tide-waiter," said his wife indignantly.