"Does it show on me like that?" he stammered.
"Was your train in a wreck? Are you in trouble?" she asked. "Something shows plainly enough, but I don't understand what it is."
"Are you all right, Mother?" He advanced a step, looking intently at her.
"Of course I'm all right! You can see that for yourself. The question is, what's the matter with you?"
"If you will have it, there is something the matter. Since I saw you last I have seen a woman I want to marry, that's all; unless I add that I want her so badly that I haven't much sense left. Now you have it!"
"No, I don't have it, and I won't have it! What designing creature has been trying to intrigue you now?" she demanded.
"Not any one. She didn't see me, even. I saw her. I've been following her for nearly two hours instead of coming straight to you, as I always have. So you see where I am. I expect you won't forgive me, but since I'm here, you must know that I could only come on the evening train."
He crossed the room, knelt beside the chair, and took it and its contents in his arms.
"Are you going to scold me?" he asked.
"I am," she said. "I am going to take you out and push you into the deepest part of the lake. I'm so disappointed. Why, John, for the first time in my life I've selected a girl for you, the very most suitable girl I ever saw, and I hoped and hoped for three days that when you came you'd like her. Of course I wasn't so rash as to say a word to her! But I've thought myself into a state where I'm going to be sick with disappointment."