"O, I must go home, now."
"Not till after dinner."
"I'm not—dressed for dinner."
"There's nobody here but ourselves. You must stay."
Every one seemed determined to press her into a false position, and there was so little chance to throw the influence off.
She rose out of her cloak, and when Mrs. Harvey came back she was standing before the fire with Elbert—which seemed also to be significant.
"Caroline, don't coddle Rose any more; she's all right."
Mrs. Harvey accepted this command, because it argued a sense of proprietorship on her son's part.
They continued this intimate talk during the dinner. Elbert took her down and placed her near him. There were a couple of elderly ladies, sisters of Mr. Harvey, who sat also at table in a shadowy way, and Rose divined in a flash of imaginative intelligence how they subordinated themselves because they were dependent. "Would I grow like that as I grew old?" was her thought.
At the table she felt it her duty to rouse herself to talk, and she took part in the jolly patter between Elbert and his mother. Their camaraderie was very charming—so charming one almost forgot the irreverence expressed by his use of "Caroline."