"Emily, I think you cannot have told me all that happened."
"I can't think of it any more," she said; and her face was full of trouble. "I certainly don't know, and have never thought how I looked."
"Mr. Morton seems to have been cool enough to have been very observant," said the banker keenly.
"I was wet enough to be cool, sir. Miss Warren said I was not fit to be seen, and the doctor bundled me out of the room, fearing I would frighten Zillah into hysterics. Hey, Zillah! what do you think of that?"
"I think the doctor was silly. I wouldn't be afraid of thee any more than of Emily."
"Please let us talk and think of something else," Miss Warren pleaded.
"I don't want to forget what I owe to Richard," said Reuben a little indignantly. I trod on his foot under the table. "Thee needn't try to stop me, Richard Morton," continued the boy passionately. "I couldn't have got mother out alone, and I'd never left her. Where would we be, Emily Warren, if it hadn't been for Richard?"
"In heaven," I said, laughing, for I was determined to prevent a scene.
"Well, I hope so," Reuben muttered; "but I don't mind being in mother's dining-room."
Even Mrs. Yocomb's gravity gave way at this speech.