"Oh, I could not do that," she said, bridling in a way I thought curious, "and Paulina did not need me as Mr. Dicks proposed taking the nurse, though her post is now a sinecure."
"He must feel very grateful to you for your devotion to his daughter," father said.
"Oh, not at all; I was very glad to be of service," she said, and then, to my amusement, she blushed like a girl and looked so oddly self-conscious that I could have laughed.
But the next moment I did not feel at all like laughing, for she went on to say:
"We were all so glad to hear that you were coming, Mr. Darracott, for we are such a small party now. Colonel Hyde will be obliged to you for keeping him in countenance, for he is our only gentleman."
"Really! Why, what has become of Professor Faulkner?" asked my father, while my heart gave a sudden bound and then seemed to stand still.
"He has gone to Edinburgh on business—something to do with a post at a college there, I believe," said Miss Cottrell.
I seemed to turn both hot and cold as she spoke. In that brief moment of suspense I felt that I could not possibly bear it, if he had taken his final departure from "Gay Bowers" without saying good-bye to me.
"Then he is coming back again," father said quietly.
"Oh, yes, he is coming back some time," Miss Cottrell replied; "he has not taken his books and things with him."