“You––cannot––be––serious, Sadie?” said the older cousin, slowly.
“I am, though!” was the passionate rejoinder. “Nanette and I packed my steamer trunk after you and Auntie went to bed. Hurry now, Helen, dear, for we must be at the Little Church Around the Corner at eleven o’clock. I am going to wear my gray travelling dress and you your brown.”
“Why, you dreadful little minx, you!” cried Helen. “If you are poking fun at me I will never forgive you.”
“I am not poking fun,” retorted Sadie with the same ardor and almost in tears. “It is all planned 301 and arranged. Whitney promised to have everything ready at the church, including Travers Gladwin. He said he couldn’t wait another minute after eleven o’clock––that the suspense would kill him––and he was so terribly in earnest about it that I believe him.”
“You goose!” exclaimed Helen, but now she was smiling and there was a happy light in her eyes.
“Do you mean to tell me, Sadie Burton,” she added, “that you fell in love with that young man in a few hours––you, the man-hater!”
“Y-y-yes,” admitted Sadie, her cheeks again on fire.
“And a man you don’t know anything about––a perfect stranger!”
This brought the fire into the timid miss’s eyes and she returned warmly:
“I know everything about him, Helen Burton––his whole family history, and he is only obeying orders in rushing the ceremony.”