‘Come upstairs, Lizzie,’ she entreated in a whisper; ‘come up and take off your things, and I’ll tell you all about it.’
We were soon in her own room—that cosy room in which she and her younger sister Mattie slept, and which bore so many evidences of their mother’s tender care and thought for them.
‘And so you are really engaged to be married, Amy?’ I exclaimed as the door closed behind us. ‘That was a very astounding piece of intelligence to me, who had never heard the faintest whisper of such a thing before.’
‘You forget you have not been near us for a month,’ she answered, laughing; ‘but the truth is, Lizzie, it was all so uncertain till this morning that mamma said it would be very unwise to mention it to anybody; so that you were the first recipient of the news, after all.’
‘Well, I suppose I must be satisfied with that; and when did you meet him, Amy?’
‘Last month, up in London, while I was staying with my Aunt Charlesworth.’
‘And is it a settled thing, then?’
‘Oh yes! His parents have consented, and are coming to Rockledge on purpose to call on us. And—and—he came down this morning to tell papa; and I believe we are to be married in the spring.’
‘So soon?’ I ejaculated, thinking how easily some people’s courtships ran.