"A mistake!" she repeated excitedly, "what do you mean? YOU 'C,' our
'C,' of the wire? Nonsense! You are joking!"
"Yes, he is joking!" Quimby reiterated, but his teeth chattered as he spoke. "He is a dreadful fellow to joke, Clem is!"
"Clem!" cried Cyn and Nattie, in the same breath.
"Do you begin to believe me?" said the gentleman who had caused all this disturbance, and looking at Nattic, who now, becoming conscious that her hand was yet in his, withdrew it hastily, with a deep blush.
"I don't know what to think!" cried Cyn.
"Do explain something, quick, or I shall burst a blood-vessel with impatience; I know I shall!" exclaimed Jo.
Mr. Stanwood complied, by saying,
"The fact of the case is simply this. That red-haired young man, so graphically described by you girls, that 'odious creature,' was the operator I went to substitute for that day!"
"Oh!" said Nattie, a light beginning to break upon her.
"But how—" commenced Cyn.