"For goodness' sake!" exclaimed Eleanor, at last.
"Wh-y—I wanted to live with you in Denver this winter!" complained Polly. Then remembering John and his evident preference for Anne, she added severely: "Does John know about this man?"
Anne laughed gayly. "No, and that is the only thing that makes me feel unhappy. I'd accept at once, if New York wasn't so far away, or if I had never met John."
Although Anne spoke in a jocular tone when mentioning John, she blushed most bewitchingly at her acknowledgment.
Eleanor had been keenly studying Anne's face, and now she exclaimed: "Ha! you didn't tell us what sort of a proposal! It may be a mason who wants to hire you to carry a hod up the ladders."
As the very idea was so ridiculous, every one laughed, and that broke the tension. Then Anne admitted: "I felt like squaring myself with you, Nolla, for your hint that I was answering ads. in the Matrimonial Mirror."
"Well, then, is it for a hod-carrier?" insisted the irrepressible Eleanor.
"Almost as good; it is for a teacher to carry learning up into young ladies' brains at a fashionable seminary in New York."
"What? never!" declared Barbara.
"Of course—why not?" replied Anne.