"And it has to be proved first that the letter ever passed through my hands," said Arthur in a more serious tone.
"Don't let it trouble you, Arthur," said Molly soothingly.
"It isn't likely I shall," replied Arthur scornfully. "Nobody but Annie would think of blaming me for such a thing."
And Arthur went up to his mother's room whistling a lively air and full of pleasant anticipations of seeing some of his old friends and school-fellows the next evening, for he had heard incidentally that several other lads besides himself were invited to spend the evening at Mr. Brading's house.
[CHAPTER VI]
AN UNEXPECTED MEETING
ARTHUR was received by his friend and Mrs. Brading most kindly and courteously, without any tinge of either patronage or condescension, which some words of his elder sister had almost led him to expect.
He found that Mr. Brading, if he was not to be reckoned among the county families, was a gentleman in his own home as well as at business, and Mrs. Brading was all that a lady should be in the reception of her guests and the ordering of her household. He found his friend's two sisters were much like his own: well-mannered, quietly-dressed girls, who received him as their brother's friend in a perfectly natural manner, so that he speedily felt at ease and at home among them.
They were all assembled in the drawing-room, waiting for the dinner-gong to sound, when the door opened and the servant announced "Mr. Adrian Murray."
"I didn't know you knew my Cousin Ted," exclaimed Arthur, turning to Jack Brading.