Cherry had no such hope, as she stood at the conservatory door, calling Stella. Both came up to her; and as she sent the girl to her brother, Charlie looked at her with an anxious 'Well?' as the colour deepened in his honest face.
'I think your father is in the study,' she evasively said.
'Come, now, Miss Underwood, I am sure you know all about it. What sort of a chance have I?'
'I don't think you ought to have any chance at your age. Indeed, Charlie, I do wish you had let it alone for the present.'
'I assure you, I didn't know I wasn't going to let it alone; but what could I do when I found the dear little darling crying enough to overset a mill-stone? One couldn't but do one's best to comfort her; and when I found I had really got over the line, and been making sheer love, I could not but have it out and go on with it.'
'Then was it only that moment?'
'No! no! no! I'd known her for my Star, my light, my darling, ever since I can't tell when; but of course I knew what a shindy there would be, and as long as I could come here and look at her, I could have gone on quietly till I was of age, and could fight it out. Only when it came to her being lonely—'
'Do you think she knew it for what you say?'
Charlie shrugged his shoulders, laughed, and coloured.
'And your father?'