Lucia glanced around at the utensil as if this expedient had not occurred to her.
"Mr. Jardine must be waiting for you, girls," Mrs. Laniston admonished them.
"I know the reason you won't open the trunk before us, Aunt Dora. Because you are going to lend him and Frank some—some—petticoats! for the night—you know!"
Mrs. Laniston tried to look shocked.
"Lucia, I am surprised," she said.
"Why, I am only talking to you, Aunt Dora. I would not bring a blush to the antique cheek of Mr. Jardine for the world," she gravely protested.
"Much cheek as he has got," Ruth gurgled.
"As for Frank, his brazen athletics have made his cheek a permanent cardinal red, and he could not blush if he would."
Mrs. Laniston broke into an unwilling laugh.
"You two will be the death of me!"