“There!” she said. “The milk is spilled. No use tryin’ to pick it up or talk about it. What are your plans? Where is the weddin’ to be?”
Esther looked at Bob and it was Bob who answered.
“We haven’t decided that exactly,” he said. “All this decision of ours is so sudden that we haven’t had time to plan much of anything. My horse and buggy are out at the gate. I am going to take Esther over to my cousin’s house in South Denboro to-night. I shall go home. Then, in the morning, she will meet me at the station and we will take the early train for Boston. As soon as we can—sometime to-morrow, of course—we shall be married. Then, if I can get a stateroom and passage on the steamer, we shall—”
“Hush! Wait, wait, wait! Let me understand this plan. You aren’t going to be married until to-morrow—in Boston? You were goin’ to go away from Harniss without bein’ married?”
Bob stared at her. “I told you,” he said, slowly, “that I should take Esther to my cousin’s house in South Denboro. I shall leave her there and go home. Look here, Miss Clark, I don’t quite understand what you mean by—”
“Oh, hush! Mercy on us, what children you two are, after all. I am not worried about you. I know you are all right, both of you. But I am worried about what everybody else will say. Haven’t you lived long enough to know that the average person is only too delighted to get a chance to say a mean thing? Haven’t you heard what has been said about other young idiots in this town who have— Oh, but there! They shan’t have the chance to say them about you. I’ll see to that. Esther, take off your things. Bob, you keep yours on, for I shall want you to go out on an errand in a minute.... Dear, dear, dear! If we only had more time. Esther, when did your uncle expect to be back from Ostable?”
“Why, I don’t know exactly. Not until late; he said that to me.”
“Late! Well, I wish I knew how late. Tell me, will he know you have come here?”
“I suppose Varunas, if he is up, will tell him I sent my bag here.”
“Yes, of course. And he will come chasin’ down here first thing. You didn’t tell him you were leavin’ him for good?”