"Oh, look, Nan—a telegram! For whom, I wonder!"
She leaned over the side of the porch and caught the name of "Dicks" as the boy handed in the telegram. She turned and ran downstairs. A moment later I saw her tearing across the garden in search of her father. I wondered what the message might be, but presently I forgot all about it as my thoughts gathered again around the thrilling interest of my own life.
There was so much to dream about—what father would think, what mother would feel, Olive's sympathetic interest, and the comments Peggy was likely to make—that an hour slipped by without my knowing it. I had taken up some needlework, but I had accomplished very little when I was roused from my reverie by a tap at the door. Almost before I could bid her enter, Paulina burst into the room. Her face was radiant. She threw herself on her knees beside me, hugging me as she said:
"Oh, Nan, Nan, you will never believe what has happened!"
"Ah! The telegram brought good news!" I exclaimed. "Is it all right with the money after all?"
"Oh, nothing to do with the money!" she cried, impatient with the suggestion. "It was a cablegram, Nan—a cablegram from Charlie! He has heard of poppa's loss, and he cables that there is a home for me—and for poppa, too, of course-with him, and he will meet us at New York. And poppa thought—or pretended to think—that Charlie only wanted me because of the money!"
"Then it is a proposal by cablegram," I said. "What a novel idea!"
"Yes, it was clever of Charlie to think of it," Paulina said with sparkling eyes. "Rather extravagant, perhaps, but it did not take many words to make us understand. Oh, Nan, can't you guess how happy I am!"
"Then your father consents?" I said eagerly.
"Rather!" said Paulina. "And he has the grace to own up that he's ashamed of himself, and has never done Charlie justice. We are going to drive into Chelmsford with the Professor after luncheon in order to send a reply to Charlie. Now, Nan, don't imagine that I am so wooden-headed that I can't guess why he is going up to London to-day when he only arrived here yesterday."