"Mother!" she began. "I won’t be home for dinner."
"Angie!" came the very tremulous voice of Mrs. Kennedy, always distressed at the telephone. "Better come home as early as you can. There’s a lady here to see you—Mrs. Russell."
Angelica was shocked, terrified.
"Something’s happened to Eddie!" she thought at first. And then came an idea that turned her cold with fright. "They’ve found out! She knows! She’s come to tell me what she thinks of me!"
II
Nothing of the sort, however. Mrs. Russell sat there, waiting, all smiles and affability, for the sole purpose of inviting Angelica to visit Buena Vista. She had had a letter from Eddie, in which he had rather severely requested her to show all due civility to his future wife.
"He really means it!" she had said to her husband. "I hoped he’d forgotten. I really thought the thing had blown over. Beastly, isn’t it? Imagine her here!"
"It doesn’t frighten me," Dr. Russell said jauntily.
"Satyr!" she said. "You can’t be trusted out of my sight!"
And both he and she were pleased and proud of his senile impudence.