Mrs. Lewis laughed. “Well, you know how the girls are nowadays. It takes plenty of money to keep them.”
“I see, but Mrs. Lewis,——” Ann had no chance!
“At the home of one of our Boston friends a lady was visiting who had been in Paris at the time when Sue LeRoy married Mr. Tyson. She said that there was a rumor after the marriage that Mr. Tyson was a young widower with an infant son, and that your aunt was so angry when she found it out, that rather than have it known,—yes, thank you, Madeline, those are delicious little cakes.”
“Your mother wants you, Ann,—excuse her, please, Mrs. Lewis. Bring along your cream, Ann; I’ll put it somewhere for you.” Suzanne, with an expression of amused horror, which Ann had caught across the room, had hastily come to the rescue.
Mrs. Lewis, who was just about to ask Ann if the gossip were known in the family, saw her victim depart with real regret.
“I knew how you must have been suffering, Ann,” laughed Suzanne, as the two girls walked away. “Come out in the back hall and finish your cream. Your mother does want you, but there isn’t any hurry.”
“I—I never saw, I mean, heard, such a person! She must have been the one that your mother didn’t want Grandmother to invite because she was such a gossip.”
“Grandmother didn’t want to offend her, I guess.”
“That is what she said.”
“What did she get out of you, Ann?”