"And how miserably unhappy we should have been if we had known what was going on!" cried Ruth.
"I'm glad we didn't know," said Billy ingenuously. "It wouldn't have done any good if we had," he added quickly, wondering if his candid remark had sounded a little unkind, he had not meant it to be that.
"Don't you think we might, with advantage, change the subject of our conversation?" suggested Mr. Wyndham. "You have said enough about your enemy for to-night, Violet, let us hear about your friends—those two girls whom you went to see in the Easter holidays, for instance. Let me see, what was it they were called?"
"Garret," Violet replied, and forthwith launched into a lengthy description of the Garret girls, whom, next to Ann Reed, she counted as her best friends, and Agnes Hosking's name did not occur in the conversation again.
The family party did not break up till late that night, and long after the rest of the household slept Ruth and Violet talked in their own room. They had so much to say to each other, and excitement kept them from feeling sleepy.
"I believe you have grown inches," declared Ruth, as she sat on her sister's box, whilst Violet, standing before the dressing-table, brushed her wavy brown hair, "and you are looking remarkably well. How do you think father is looking?"
"Capital! I noticed the difference in him the instant I caught sight of him when our train ran into the station; he looks so much younger and brighter than when I went away, and I'm sure he doesn't stoop so much. Oh, Ruthie, you can't think how rejoiced I felt when I heard of his good fortune!"
"I think I can," Ruth replied, smiling happily. "Were you disappointed when you heard we were going to remain on here?" she inquired.
Violet nodded. "Just a little," she admitted, "but it is a nice little house really; I thought how comfortable the sitting-room was to-night, you've improved it."
"Oh, you noticed that!" Ruth exclaimed, much gratified; "I was so afraid the house would appear very mean and small after the one you have been accustomed to lately."