"It is lovely having you here," I said, "I was just beginning to be dull. What made you come this wet day?"
"Your husband wired for me."
"So you knew he was away?"
"Yes," she returned, "and I went straight away to see if I could persuade Peter to let your mother come and stay with you during your husband's absence."
"And——" I cried.
"Your father had just succeeded in getting a canoe to float on the duck-pond—personally I think it was on the bottom, but I did not suggest that—and in the flush of victory he said she could come the day after to-morrow. Ah, that's better," she finished as the blood rushed into my cheeks. "You looked as white as a ghost when I came in."
"You are clever," I said.
"Yes," she agreed, "in some things."
A smile hovered round her mouth.
"I wonder if you had been Peter's wife——"