“No, not really, uncle. I was just so determined that nothing should interfere this time.” She gulped in spite of all her show of courage.
Presently Charley Towers got up and paced the room. He was laboring under stirring emotions, that was plain. Gloria wished she had not produced the letter, but it was so difficult to do or say anything safe under the trying circumstances.
“Please don’t mind so much, Uncle Charley,” she begged when he crossed near her chair. “It will be all right—”
“I have no patience with such extravagance—” he broke in sharply. “I never agreed with your aunt’s foolish plan and until the matter is adjusted I shall continue to stay away and work harder by being near the business. At least we can do something to catch up that way.”
“Is that why—you don’t come home as you used to, three times a week?” gasped Gloria.
“Well, that is one reason,” he conceded. “That and the opposition I have to Hazel’s monopoly of the home finances. Of course, she’s only a girl,” he added kindly, “but—well, I can’t agree with the big plan, that’s all.”
“Oh, Uncle Charley, I am sure Aunt Hattie is very lonely—”
“Gloria dear,” he interrupted, “I have no quarrel with your aunt—now, but I must do what I can to straighten things out, and I can do that best by sticking very closely to my post.”
Her aunt’s appearance put an end to the confidences. But Gloria was more mystified than ever. What could he mean by straightening things out?
A suggestion that they all go to the evening’s pictures was finally agreed to by Mrs. Towers, and this was indeed a welcome treat for Gloria. She had missed her companions so much—especially Tom and Millie. Each day she told herself she would write them that she was not at boarding school and thus establish a correspondence long delayed, but somehow, when she undertook to write that letter (and she had done so more than once) she would lay it down in despair. What would her friends think of this mysterious change? She hated the thought of their surprise and the talk it might provoke in Barbend.