"You are ten minutes late, Eleanor!" said Mrs. Lorton peevishly. "And, good heavens! what a sight you look! If one late night has this effect upon you, what would half a dozen have? I am quite sure that I never looked half as haggard and colorless as you do, even when I'd been through a whole season." For a moment the good lady was quite convinced that she had been a fashionable belle. "I should advise you to keep out of Drake's sight for an hour or two; at any rate, until you have got some color in your face, and your eyes have ceased to look like boiled gooseberries."
The mention of Drake brought the color to Nell's face quickly enough, but for an instant only. It was white again, as she resolved to tell Mrs. Lorton that the engagement was broken off.
"It doesn't matter, mamma," she said; and she tried to smile.
Mrs. Lorton stared at her over the chocolate.
"Doesn't matter?" she echoed. "You think he's so madly in love with you that it doesn't matter how you look, I suppose? Don't lay that flattering unction to your soul, Eleanor. I've known many an engagement broken off in consequence of the man coming suddenly upon the girl when she had a bad cold and had got a red nose and eyes."
"Perhaps I've had a bad cold without knowing it, mamma, and Drake must have come upon me when my nose and eyes were appallingly red, for our engagement—is—broken—off."
Mrs. Lorton nearly dropped the cup of chocolate, and stared and gasped like a fish out of water.
"Broken off!" she exclaimed. "Take this cup away! Give me the sal volatile. Open the window! No, don't open the window! What are you talking about? Are you out of your mind?"
Nell took the cup, got the sal volatile, and soothed the flustered woman in a mechanical fashion.
"Hush, hush, mamma!" she said. "I don't want Dick to know yet."