She had let Betty decorate her for dinner, and there was a large red flower tucked in among the masses of her dark hair just behind one small ear. She had grown taller, but was just as slim as ever; although Mrs. Brenton invented all sorts of fattening dishes entirely for Caroline's consumption, she refused to grow fat.
"Oh, I don't mean his looks, I mean his manner! Don't you find him ever so much brighter and brisker? He seems quite happy too. I am glad of that!"
Caroline put down her coffee-cup. She heard the dining-room door open.
"I am just going to run upstairs to see if Betty has dropped off. She looked very wakeful."
Her white gown whisked out of sight as Mr. Brenton and his guest came out of the dining-room, and though they sat a long time chatting and smoking, Miss Graniger never came back.
"I am trying to divide her a little from this devotion to the children, but it is not very successful," Mrs. Brenton said to Rupert, "and yet she cannot remain with them all her life."
"I am afraid she is rather obstinate," Haverford remarked, a trifle grimly.
The next morning he left Yelverton early—so early that the children were only half dressed when he went.
Betty lamenting, recalled a score of promises unfulfilled, and wept bitterly; and Caroline, as she listened to the child, felt almost ashamed.
"Although," she argued with herself, "he need not have gone away if he had not wanted to go."