“My dear boy,” replied his father, “how natural! Consider the continuous pleasure of keeping your balance.”
“Well,” said Otto, “it seems to me she came some very positive croppers. However, I’m no judge.”
He left the room; his mother ran after him.
“You haven’t asked her, Otto?” she gasped. “She hasn’t rejected you?”
“Oh no,” he said, and shut the door.
CHAPTER X
AN INDELIBLE STAIN
The next day dawned for Ursula in unclouded brightness. Those few of us who remember a youth no longer ours will forgive her the excess of an expectancy she was unable to curb by experience. She was going to an entertainment at one of the great houses of Drum. She had never been to anything so magnificent before. And Gerard, whom she had known all her life, was to be there to make things smooth for her. A slight difficulty about a chaperon had been most pleasantly removed. The Freule van Trossart had on the preceding afternoon left a card for Juffrouw Rovers, with a note saying that if she cared to come and dine before the party, she could be present at it afterwards as a house guest, under the Baroness’s wing. Ursula had accepted gladly, by no means impervious to so much condescension, and, altogether, she felt very well satisfied indeed. The night before she had written a glorious letter to her father; she had said nothing of her aunt’s ill health.