“Wasn't it funny!” she gushed. “I don't wonder you laugh. Here was I saying it was a cousin and Phelps declaring it was an uncle. It was so odd and SO like this funny little town. Do tell us; which was it, really, Captain Dott?”
Daniel, staggering before this point blank attack, hesitated. “Why,” he stammered, “it was—it was—” He looked appealingly at Serena.
“Why don't you answer Mrs. Black?” inquired his wife, rather sharply.
“It was my Aunt Laviny,” said the captain.
Mrs. Black nodded and smiled.
“Oh! your aunt!” she exclaimed. “There! isn't that funny! And SO characteristic of Trumet. Neither an uncle nor a cousin, but an aunt. What did you say her name was?”
“Laviny?”
“Yes, I know. Laviny—what an odd name! I don't think I ever heard it before. Was the rest of it as odd as that?”
Serena, who had been fidgeting in her chair, cut in here.
“It wasn't Laviny at all,” she said. “That is only Daniel's way of pronouncing it. It is what he used to call her when he was a child. A—a sort of pet name, you know.”