“They’re engaged!” he burst out.
“My dear Henry!” said Millie. “What’s the matter?”
“I tell you! Katherine and Mark. They’ve been into father, and he says they’re to wait a year, but it’s all right. He says that he didn’t know till they told him. Katherine’s with Mother now,—Mark’s coming in to-night; Katherine!”
He broke off, words failed him, and he was suddenly conscious of his Uncle’s eye.
“What?” said Aunt Aggie.
“They’re engaged,” repeated Henry.
“Whom?” cried Aunt Aggie, ungrammatically, with a shrill horror that showed that she had already heard.
“Katie and Philip,” Henry almost screamed in reply.
What Aunt Aggie, whose eyes were staring as though she saw ghosts or a man under her bed, would have said to this no one could say, but Aunt Sarah drove, like a four-wheeled coach, right across her protruding body.
Aunt Sarah said: “What are you all talking about? What’s the matter with Henry? Is he ill? I can’t hear.”