"Once more, our best thanks to your son."
Mrs. Leighton answered as though she hadn't minded a bit that Cuthbert had been nearly killed the day before.
"So good of you to call," said she.
"Oh," cried Elma, with her head on the banister rail, after the door shut, "I hate society; don't you, mummy?"
"I think you're very badly behaved, all of you, listening there like a lot of babies," said Mrs. Leighton.
"Come and tell your little girls all about it," cried Jean sarcastically.
Mrs. Leighton smiled as she toiled upstairs.
"It ought to be a lesson to you. Haven't I often told you that listeners hear no good of themselves," she exclaimed.
"Oh, mummy, we are musical," reminded Mabel, softly. "Think of that terrific compliment!"
Their mother seemed to have more on her mind than she would tell them. She puffed gently into Cuthbert's room.