“You don’t think she will mind, Doll?”
“Why should she mind? Most people don’t mind being called on, even if they have a pretty face.”
“Pretty face! She is pretty all over.”
“Well, then, a pretty all over. I start at three; don’t be late.”
Thereupon Jeremy went off to beautify himself for the occasion, and his sister gazed at his departing form with the puzzled expression that had distinguished her as a child.
“He’s going to fall in love with her,” she said to herself, “and no wonder; any man would: she is ‘pretty all over,’ as he said, and what more does a man look at? I wish that she would fall in love with him before Ernest comes home;” and she sighed.
At a quarter to three Jeremy reappeared, looking particularly huge in a black coat and his Sunday trousers. When they reached the cottage where Miss Ceswick lived with her nieces, they were destined to meet with a disappointment, for neither of the young ladies was at home. Miss Ceswick, however, was there, and received them very cordially.
“I suppose that you have come to see my newly imported niece,” she said; “in fact, I am sure that you have, Mr. Jeremy, because you never came to call upon me in your life. Ah, it is wonderful how young men will change their habits to please a pair of bright eyes!”
Jeremy blushed painfully at this sally, but Dorothy came to his rescue.
“Has Miss Eva come to live with you for good?” she asked.