“I had breakfast with Mrs. Rucker. Isn’t she always the nicest person?” Gabrielle was thereby reminded to tell him. “And what a ducky baby. We got in to New York yesterday morning, you know, and came up on the night train. I went straight to your Keyport house, hoping to find you, but you’d just gone. I left all my things there, and of course I’m to stay there to-night.”
“You won’t be going away again, Miss Gabrielle?” John asked.
“Why, that depends——” She looked at David in a little confusion, looked back into the sweet open spaces of the barn. “I may go to England——” she began.
“Looks like you might be surprising us, too, one of these days!” Etta said, shrewd and curious.
David glanced quickly at the girl; she was walking beside Etta.
“You wouldn’t want me to be an old maid, Etta?” she asked, once more with that new, poised manner.
“No, ma’am!” Etta said, positively. “We certainly need some new life about the place. I’s saying to John a few days ago I hope both the girls’d get married.”
“Well,” Gabrielle said, with a somewhat dreamy expression in her blue eyes, “then let’s hope we will.” And David, although she immediately changed the subject by speaking of the kitchen yard of the new house, was certain that he saw the colour creep up under her clear skin, and the hint of a mysterious smile.
“Don’t shock us with too many surprises in one morning, Gabrielle,” he warned her, trying to smile naturally.
“Ah, no, I shall save something and let things appear by degrees!” she answered, cheerfully. “Brick wall here, David?”