"She is not exactly happy about it, but I am. And father is. If I only knew what the Problem would think of it. I wish Miss Carlton would go right straight away—she is angry enough to do it. Then I could tackle the Problem alone, and it would be too late to undo."
She shut her eyes very tightly and murmured softly, unintelligibly beneath her breath. "Now to make doubly sure, I shall go and concentrate. Every one says you get things if you concentrate hard enough."
She listened once more at the door that led into the hall. Miss Carlton was undoubtedly throwing her possessions violently and untenderly into her bags and trunk.
"Concentration won't hurt, for when she remembers how handsome father is she may change her mind," said the General soberly.
So she slipped back to the bay-window, and bent all her energies, and all the force of her strong young will to the task of concentration.
A little later she heard Miss Carlton at the up-stairs branch of the telephone, and though she would not dream of listening to a telephonic conversation, she did saunter carelessly to the hall door and so overheard Miss Carlton giving a hurried order for an expressman.
"Providence and concentration together are really irresistible," she smiled to herself. "I suppose, after all, I could have gotten along without the concentration, but in a crisis like this I thought it would not hurt to try everything."
She went demurely back to her mending, and after a while the expressman came and took away the trunk and bags, and finally Miss Carlton came to her.
"I am going home right now, Doris," she said, "but I do not regard this as final. We shall say I am going for a visit. And when you want me to come back, just telephone. After all, I think it is a good move. Your father will soon find out what a difference I made in the home. He will be the first to want me back." She smiled without resentment. "So I quite agree with you, little General. This just suits my purpose, and I shall stay at home until—some one comes after me."