“Why, dear,” replied Mrs. Dinks, confused by Hope’s air of innocence, “your engagement, of course.”
“My engagement?” said Hope, with a look of utter amazement; “to whom, I should like to know?”
Mrs. Dinks looked at her for an instant, and asked, in a clear, dry tone:
“Are you not engaged to Alfred?”
Hope Wayne’s look of anxious surprise melted into an expression of intense amusement.
“To Alfred Dinks!” said she, in a slow, incredulous tone, and with her eyes sparkling with laughter. “Why, my dear aunt?”
Mrs. Dinks was overwhelmed by a sudden consciousness of bitter disappointment, mingled with an exasperating conviction that she had been somehow duped. The tone was thick in which she answered.
“What is the meaning of this? Hope, are you deceiving me?”
She knew Hope was not deceiving her as well as she knew that they were sitting together in the carriage.
Hope’s reply was a clear, ringing, irresistible laugh. Then she said,