"Oh, you, of course!" Roguishly she added: "Aren't you one of the family?"
He looked at her and smiled. In an undertone which Ray, too busy looking at the paper, did not hear, he added:
"Not yet, but I hope to be."
"The sooner the better, Wilbur," she said earnestly. With a significant glance at her sister she added, "Don't let her keep you waiting too long."
Every hour brought nearer the happy day when they would see Kenneth again. A cablegram from England reported that the Zanzibar had reached Southampton. Closely following this came a brief message from Kenneth himself, stating that he was on the point of sailing for New York on the Adriatic. In five more days he would be in New York.
Expectation now reached fever heat, the excitement being communicated to everyone in the house. Every time the front door bell rang there was a rush downstairs in the hope that it might be another message.
Ray, bubbling over with excitement, was almost as eager as her sister.
"Won't it be jolly to go down to the dock and meet him?"
Helen shook her head.
"I won't go to meet him. I prefer to be here when he arrives." Anxiously she added: "I hope everything is all right."