'No,' said Ella, 'I—indeed I never should!'
'Ha, ha! nor should we! You would have screamed to see him fussing about—wasn't he killing over it, Carrie?'
'Oh, he was, Jessie!'
'My son,' explained Mrs. Chapman to Mrs. Hylton, 'is so wonderfully energetic and practical. I have never known him fail to carry through anything he has once undertaken—he inherits that from his poor dear father.'
'I don't quite gather what your brother George has been doing, even now?' said Mrs. Hylton to Jessie.
'Oh, but my lips are sealed. Wild horses sha'n't drag any more from me! Don't be afraid, Ella, I won't spoil sport!'
'There is no sport to spoil,' said Ella. 'Mother, it is only that—that George has furnished the house while I have been away.'
'Really?' said Mrs. Hylton politely; 'that is energetic of him, indeed!'
'Poor dear Tumps came home so proud of your approval,' said Jessie to Ella, 'and we were awfully relieved to find you didn't think we'd made the house quite too dreadful—weren't we, Carrie?'