“I know, Aunt Ruthy, it does seem dreadful saucy, and all that; but I don’t see how I am to help it. I am so sorry you came home; no—I mean I’m glad, of course, for I love you; but if you hadn’t come, it—”
“It would have been more convenient for thee,” finished Miss Kinsolving, smiling in spite of her determination to be stern; also, in spite of her determination not to do anything of the kind, obediently walking out into the hall and standing there like a child in a game, while her companions behind the door deliberate as to her further mystification.
Certainly, the truth that earnestness bears its own force was never more fully exemplified. After a very brief consultation, the door was opened and the lady invited to reënter.
“Well, Aunt Ruth, there is nothing we can tell you, except that which Rosetta tried to write. I think that she meant this: Ten days ago I went to New York.”
“Octave! Alone?”
“Why, yes, ma’am; who was there to go with me?”
“But why?”
“On the happiest errand of my life. I am the proudest girl you ever saw; though I am, even in this case, ‘only Octave.’ Did you ever hear of Professor Edric von Holsneck?”
“All the world has heard of him. What has he to do with thee and me?”
“Everything. I went to New York to see him.”