"Oh, mummy, it's lovely. I don't mind. It's just being ill that made me shake. Aren't you glad it's Adelaide Maud?"
"Well--it never was anybody else, was it?" asked Mrs. Leighton blandly.
"Oh, mummy! You knew!"
Elma's whispers became most accusing.
Mrs. Leighton might have been as dense as possible in regard to her daughters, but Cuthbert's heart had always lain bare.
"Know?" asked she. "What do you think made Adelaide Maud run after you the way she did?"
"Oh, mummy. It wasn't only because of Cuthbert, was it?"
"Well, I sometimes thought it was," she said with a smile at her lips.
She looked at the shut door.
"But I can't have you stuck on a hall chair in the corridors for the afternoon, all on account of the Dudgeons," said she. "Besides, they'll be bringing up tea."