“But his folks mayn’t be scoundrels. He loved them, too, same as we love or he wouldn’t have built such a lovely Water Lily. Auntie, that boat would hold a lot of people, wouldn’t it?”
“I suppose so,” answered the lady, absently.
“When we go house-boating may I invite anybody I choose to go with us?”
“I haven’t said yet that we would go!”
“But you’ve looked it and that’s better.”
Just then an automobile whizzed by and the horses pretended to be afraid. Mrs. Calvert was frightened and leaned forward anxiously till Ephraim had brought them down to quietness again. Then she settled back against her cushions and became once more absorbed in her own sombre thoughts. She scarcely heard and wholly failed to understand Dorothy’s repeated question:
“May I, dear Aunt Betty?”
She answered carelessly:
“Why, yes, child. You may do what you like with your own.”
But that consent, so rashly given, was to bring some strange adventures in its train.