"I'll call her if you'd like to see her," returned Elizabeth promptly, and there was a mischievous light in her eyes.
"No, no--not at all," stammered the ranchman. "That is, I have a little matter to talk over later--never mind now."
They were crossing the side yard between the house and the studio. Without waiting for further Instructions Elizabeth called blithely:
"Mumsy--Uncle Harvey wants to see you!"
She was sure that Mrs. Spooner was just inside by the window, anxiously waiting for what her brother might see fit to say or do. The call was responded to with unexpected, and so far as Grannis was concerned, unwelcome promptness. Mrs. Spooner came out on the front porch and walked down the steps to greet her brother. The Babe, always eager for peace, though still shy of the man who had thought of shooting Queen Berengaria, followed. Ruth advanced from her bakery as the two left the studio. Old Jonah came around the house, wheeling a barrow, and to complete the family picture Roy just then drove up in a grocer's delivery wagon and stopped at the curb.
"Well, we all seem to be here," remarked Harvey Grannis, rather feebly.
A bicycle-mounted boy wheeled up perilously close between the delivery-wagon and the gate, Roy turned with a little annoyance, then he saw that the messenger held a yellow envelope in his hand, and was approaching Mrs. Spooner.
The little woman's breath came in gasps, since the ceasing of her Cuban letters she was always afraid of the sight of a telegram.
"Don't let her have it--I want to say something first," Grannis protested, getting between the messenger and his sister.
"I'll open it for her--she would want me to," declared Elizabeth, snatching the envelope from the messenger's hand.