“Ah, I see. Yes, I see. You have been studying too hard—overworking yourself, and you have been obliged to come home and take a rest. And you came by the night train, and reached here only this morning, did you not?”
“No, mother; I got here last night.”
“Last night! Why did you not come to me at once?”
“You had retired to bed.”
“Where did you sleep?”
“In your old room at the cabin,” answered Harcourt, thrown off his guard.
“In—my—old—room—in—the—cabin! What on earth do you mean, Will?”
“Oh, I mean, of course, in Martha’s best room in her cabin, where she made me up a bed, so as to prevent me from disturbing the family,” said Harcourt, correcting himself as well as he could.
“Just as if the return of one’s son at any hour of the day or night would or could disturb his family! Where did you get your breakfast?”
“Martha had an excellent breakfast waiting for me in the cabin as soon as I rose in the morning.”