After lunch Philip drove Lilian, Campbell and Hilary to the Stuarts, but Hilary did not return with Lilian and Philip, for Mrs. Stuart insisted upon her staying and promised to take Campbell off by himself for a talk if she would stay. And the family all made much of Hilary. It had been well known among them how long Campbell had admired her.
“He has been so uneasy at times, Hilary,” said Mrs. Stuart, in a little private conference, “and I had wondered how it was,—if you could not care for my boy.”
“It was only too easy to do that, Mrs. Stuart, but I could scarcely offer myself to him, could I?”
“No, I suppose not.”
“You see you can’t be perfectly sure that a boy cares for you very very much until he tells you so. And I think that Campbell was surprised into it as it was! Perhaps I should have said ‘No’!”
Hilary felt well acquainted with them all because of her previous visits among the relatives, and Sara, who was a tall slip of a girl in her teens now, quite openly adored her. Hilary told Sara and Emily all about her sinking heart when she thought that she would not be able to come.
“Oh, suppose you hadn’t!” exclaimed Sara. “Then you and Campbell wouldn’t be engaged, and you couldn’t have seen him before he left.”
“That was it, Sara. I really did not expect to be engaged to him, but I thought I must see him, after having expected to all these months.”
“But now you belong to us,” declared Sara emphatically. “Aunt Hilary must come to see us, too.”
“Yes,” said Emily. “I imagine that we’ll all go over there to see Phil and call on Mrs. Garland after dinner. I told Phil that he need not come for you, that we should want a visit with him, too, and would probably be over. Aunt Sylvia will want a quiet day with him tomorrow, I think.”