“Isn’t that funny? It’s just the reverse in our family. Dad’s dead easy—it’s mother who is the difficult one.”
“Oh—I know—Elinor’s talked enough about it,” Nell replied. “Your mother may have her peculiarities, but just the same, I admire her, because she has the courage to stand by her convictions. By the way, how does she feel about Elinor and Templeton Druid—or doesn’t she know about him yet?”
“Why, what is there to know about Elinor and Druid?” Howard turned to face her, as surprised as he was anxious.
“Heavens! I hope I haven’t put my foot into it!” Nell pursed up her lips, and gave her attention to her hors d’œuvre. “I thought you surely knew! Isn’t he a particular friend of yours?”
“Know what?” he demanded. There was a grimness in the boy’s tone that worried the girl.
“What’s the excitement?” she answered crossly. “Gracious, you don’t have to shout at me like that. There isn’t anything dreadful to know, only that Elinor and Templeton are going about together a great deal, and that she’s simply mad about him.”
“I hadn’t even an idea that they were seeing each other until this evening,” he replied, and then he told her about the argument he had had with Elinor just before she went out.
“What’s the matter with the little fool?” Nell demanded angrily. “Wouldn’t you think if she were going to use me as an excuse to get out, she’d at least have the decency to tell me about it. Supposing your mother should take a notion to call up my house—she’d be bound to find out.”
“Mother will never think of calling your house,” he assured her. “She’ll be in bed by nine o’clock. There isn’t any reason why she should suspect Elinor of not dining with you, is there?”
“No—none that I know of—but just the same you never can tell what might happen. I’ll warn Elinor to-morrow never to use my name again unless she is willing to take me into her confidence in advance so that I can at least be prepared to meet an emergency, should it arrive.”