Diantha looked from one to the other helplessly.
“Come in! Come in!” said Mrs. Bell hospitably. “Have this rocker, Mrs. Warden—wouldn't you like some cool drink? Diantha?”
“No indeed!” Mrs. Warden protested. “Don't get a thing. We're going right back, it's near supper time. No, we can't think of staying, of course not, no indeed!—But we had to come over and hear about this dear child's idea!—Now tell us all about it, Diantha!”
There they sat—five pairs of curious eyes—and her mother's sad ones—all kind—all utterly incapable of understanding.
She moistened her lips and plunged desperately. “It is nothing dreadful, Mrs. Warden. Plenty of girls go away to earn their livings nowadays. That is all I'm doing.”
“But why go away?”
“I thought you were earning your living before!”
“Isn't teaching earning your living?”
“What are you going to do?” the girls protested variously, and Mrs. Warden, with a motherly smile, suggested!!!!!
“That doesn't explain your wanting to leave Ross, my dear—and your mother!”