"Oh, it isn't a secret, particularly, I suppose. At least, it's not to be made public for a time; it's only to be known in the family."
"Well, didn't I just prove I'm as much one o' the family as——"
"Never mind," her father said soothingly. "I don't suppose there's any harm in your knowing it—if you won't go telling everybody. Your Aunt Julia has just written us that she's engaged."
Mrs. Atwater uttered an exclamation, but she was too late to check him.
"I'm afraid you oughtn't to have told Florence. She isn't just the most discreet——"
"Pshaw!" he laughed. "She certainly is 'one of the family', however, and Julia wrote that all of the family might be told. You'll not speak of it outside the family, will you, Florence?"
But Florence was not yet able to speak of it, even inside the family; so surprising, sometimes, are parents' theories of what will not interest their children. She sat staring, her mouth open, and in the uncertain illumination of the room these symptoms of her emotional condition went unobserved.
"I say, you won't speak of Julia's engagement outside the family, will you, Florence?"
"Papa!" she gasped. "Did Aunt Julia write she was engaged?"
"Yes."