"Hasn't it been a delightful time?" said Kitty to Marion as they were putting on their hats to go home. "I don't think I ever spent a pleasanter afternoon in my life. Your aunt is so interesting."
Marion assented rather languidly. She had not enjoyed the afternoon, and was glad when it was over. Marion had, somehow or other expected to have her own consequence greatly enhanced by her aunt's coming. Mrs. Campbell was her property, and should have reflected credit upon her. But nobody had seemed to think of Marion at all. She was only a girl among the rest of the girls, and no one treated her with any more consideration than if she had been little Mary McIntyre.
"Marion," suddenly exclaimed her aunt as they were slowly and rather silently walking homeward in the twilight—the "gloaming" Hector McGregor would have called it—"how came you to give the girls the idea that I did not want anything said or any questions asked about the subject of our mission before the lecture?"
"I don't know, I am sure," answered Marion; "I got the idea from you somehow, and I thought myself the lecture would be more interesting if it was all new to them."
"You gave them a false impression," said Mrs. Campbell, "and me also. I thought the girls cared nothing about the matter, and I was very much hurt that it should be so after all the pains I had taken. You ought to be very careful in such matters."
"I am sure I did not mean any harm," said Marion, with a sigh.
"And you did not do any, as it turned out, but you might have done a great deal," said Mrs. Campbell. "You see how the story has gone about your watch. Do you know who began that?"
"It was Matty McRae herself," said Marion, laughing and forgetting her own annoyance for the moment in the remembrance of Matty's discomfiture. "Didn't you see how all the girls looked at her?"
"I thought I noticed something peculiar," said Mrs. Campbell. "Poor child! I did not mean to mortify her so. I mentioned her father because he was the only agent I could think of at the moment."
"I should think you would be glad," said Marion. "I am sure she deserved it for telling the stories she told."