"We should love to!" cried Margaret.
"We just adore her already," remarked Evelyn.
At that moment the sound of wheels was heard approaching on the winding gravel sweep.
"She has come," said Mrs. Faithful. "Go to your lessons, girls; you will meet her at early dinner."
The girls went away, filled with the keenest excitement. Mrs. Faithful had struck the right note. Patriotism and the love of country were in their blood. Maureen, in their eyes, was a heroine before they saw her.
Mrs. Faithful had been quite sure she had done right as she went into the centre of the hall, where Dominic and Maureen were standing.
The boy held out his hand; the girl struggled to speak, but her face was very white.
"You are tired, darling," said Mrs. Faithful.
"She is—she's beat out," said Dominic.
"Dom—you know I'm not beat out." The clear, rather slowly pronounced words, which were some of Maureen's peculiarities, dropped from her pretty lips. "I've come here—indeed, I have—just to be useful and to make no trouble."