“We understand each other,” said Gloria, smiling.
“Well, if you do, I suppose that is enough,” muttered Mrs. Brent, who all this time was busy beating up eggs with sugar in a bowl, while something spicy simmered in a saucepan before the fire.
Now she took the saucepan and slowly poured its contents over the beaten eggs in the bowl, stirring thoroughly with a spoon as she poured.
Then she filled a tumbler with the pungent and fragrant compound, and gave it to Gloria, saying kindly:
“Take this, honey. It is as nice a glass of spiced mulled cider as ever I brewed in my life. It will warm you all through, and drive out any cold you may have caught.”
Gloria smiled, and thanked her kind hostess, and took and sipped the spicy beverage which she found delicious in taste and delightful in effect.
The housekeeper filled a second glass for herself, and sat down and sipped it for company.
“I should have offered to make some for your gentleman, honey, only as he was going out in the cold again it would have done him more harm than good. Besides, to tell the honest truth, I don’t think such indulgence in drink is good for young men anyhow. They begin with cider, and are too apt to end with rum.”
Very much revived and comforted, Gloria finished her mulled cider and put her glass upon the mantelpiece.
“Now, then, dear, we will go up stairs to bed,” said Mrs. Brent, placing her own glass beside the other one, and blowing out one candle and taking the other.