"He is very thankful that he came to 'Gay Bowers,'" she said solemnly, "and you can't think how glad I am that we both chanced to see your aunt's advertisement."
"It has indeed proved a happy circumstance," I said, "but I hope this will not lead to your cutting short your stay, Miss Cottrell."
"I don't know," she said, blushing like a girl; "He wants me to—name a day in the autumn, and then he will take me abroad. I have so often longed to go on the Continent, and it will be so delightful to travel with him to take care of me, you know. And of course we shall do everything in the first style, for the expense will be nothing to him. Am I not a fortunate woman?"
"I can quite understand that you feel that," I said. "And how about Paulina—what will she do?"
"Oh, Paulina is so good and sweet!" she said ecstatically. "Her father would like her to go with us, but she says she would rather stay here with Mrs. Lucas till we come back. You know I think she is rather interested in the Professor."
"Oh!" I said. "But he has gone away!"
"Only for a few weeks," said Miss Cottrell carelessly.
She went on talking, but for some moments I lost all sense of what she was saying. A question recalled my mind to the present. Miss Cottrell was asking me if I had ever seen a buggy.
"No," I said dreamily; "it is a kind of carriage, I believe."
"Of course," said Miss Cottrell, "that is what I told you. He says he will take me for drives in a buggy when we go to New York. I thought you might know what it is like. It does not sound very nice somehow."