"Why, you look as if you were quarreling," she said to Edith, "you and—Mr. Hardon; can't I be umpire?"
"Why, yes," replied Will, "that was just what we wish, for you are the only one who really understands the merits of the case. You remember that cushion?"
Ruth looked sufficiently conscious to make further reply unnecessary.
"Of course you do remember it," continued Will, "and you know that you more than half promised to save it for me. Now nobody here at this table seems able to tell me about it, at least Miss Blair isn't, and she ought to, if any one could, tell me just where it is."
"I am not sure," responded Edith, "that you have really put the question to me. At any rate I am positive that I have not made any statement about it."
"But you told me to refer to Miss Roberts, and I thought that that meant that you knew nothing about it."
"Well, honestly, I can't tell you about the cushion," said Ruth; "if any one offered more than one hundred dollars, which I think was your limit, I suppose that it has been sold."
"You think that I did not mean what I said," cried Will.
"Oh, no, indeed, but if any one offered more——"
All this time Edith had been standing with one hand behind her back, and at the last minute she raised her arm, and disclosed the cushion, which a minute before she had brought from its hiding-place beneath the table.