“Ted didn’t mean to be rude, dear,” Mrs. Brandon assured the injured one, “but we were so surprised.”
“And Nancy does seem to have such a talent for business,” ventured Miss Manners. “I tell you, dear,” and she gathered her robe around her as she followed the others out of the store, “it is something to be proud of. Any of us can be just housekeepers, but it takes a different sort of ability to be—the man of the house,” she said, which was an unusual figure of speech for prim Miss Manners to make use of.
“She can’t be that,” objected Ted.
“Very well, then,” said Nancy. “Let’s see you mop up that floor, Ted,” she challenged. “That’s a plumber’s job, too,” she pointed out. But it was Mrs. Brandon who found the mop and Ted who used it. Nancy felt perhaps, that the executive part, in turning off the water, was enough for her to have done.
She was hurt, unwillingly, at Ted’s joking remark.
“A plumber shop,” she reflected mentally. “Well, one could do worse, for plumbers are necessary and needle-work fiends aren’t. Maybe I will take up something practical before I find what would be best for me,” she continued to reason.
But none of them knew, nor was it possible for them to guess, what Nero had saved in his timely midnight alarm.
CHAPTER XXI
FOR VALUE RECEIVED
It seemed but a very short time later that Nancy was again awakened. But now the sunshine was streaming into her room, and she heard Miss Manners talking down in the hall, in a suppressed voice.
“The children are not up yet,” she was saying. “But come in, Ruth. You see we were somewhat disturbed—”