“But Miss Pike, Eleanor and——”
“No! No! I cannot permit either of you to do this thing. Your dear mother would be shocked. I’ll attend to it for you, if you will only tell me.”
“But,” began Constance, and was interrupted by the auctioneer’s voice calling:
“Now, ladies and gentlemen, here is a fine set of garden tools in perfect order.”
“Oh, they were daddy’s. That is the set mother felt so bad about selling, isn’t it, Connie?” broke in Jean, who had not been paying much attention to the conversation between her sister and Miss Pike.
“There! What did I say! I was confident of it! Now is my opportunity to make reparation. Nothing shall balk me.”
“But Miss Pike; Miss Pike; you must not. Aunt Eleanor——”
But Miss Pike had rushed toward the auction stand.
Meanwhile Eleanor had been saying: “I wish we had not offered that garden set at all. It was father’s and mother really felt dreadful about selling it. I fully intended to have it put aside without saying anything to mother, but there was so much to attend to that I forgot it, and now it is too late.”
“Not in the least, I’ll bid it in,” and rising from her chair, Madam Carruth prepared to do her duty by her niece. Just then Miss Pike appeared from the opposite direction.