“Isn’t this perfectly jolly, girls?” called Ruth from the mirror as she pinned on her hat.
“De-lighted!” exclaimed Barbara and Mollie, joining the others.
“And listen, girlies, dear! Did you scent a romance?” whispered Ruth.
“It certainly looked very much like one,” replied Barbara.
“They were engaged once,” continued Ruth, “but they had some sort of lovers’ quarrel. The poor major tried to make it up, but Aunt Sallie wouldn’t forgive him, and he went away and never came back, except for flying trips on business. Until to-day she has never seen or heard from him.”
“But she must have cared some, because she didn’t marry anyone else,” observed Mollie reflectively.
“I wonder what he did,” pondered Grace.
“Flirted with another girl,” answered Ruth. “Papa has often told me about it. Aunt Sallie had another lover, at the same time, who was very rich. She kept the two of them dangling on, and it was because she went driving with the other lover that Major Ten Eyck paid devoted attention to some other girl, one night at a ball. So they quarreled and separated.”
“Poor old major!” sighed tender-hearted Mollie.
“But she did have her rocking chair adventure after all,” laughed Barbara, as they started downstairs in obedience to Miss Sallie’s tap a few moments before.