"Yes, madam," said Hooper, getting out on his errand as expeditiously as possible.
"To think that Joel has really come!" she exclaimed to herself joyfully. She deserted her writing-table now and began to walk up and down the apartment, her long fingers nervously playing with the silken cord of her elaborate morning gown. "Oh, Joel," as her restless feet brought her near the door, "there you are, my boy."
"Yes'm," said Joel, wholly miserable, and leaning against the casing, with his black eyes fastened on the staircase, as if the way to Paradise lay there.
"Well, come in. Don't stand there any longer. Pray come in." She waved her hand authoritatively toward the centre of the apartment, then followed him, as he crept dismally in. "Now sit down," she said, in her most sociable way.
So Joel sat down and fastened his eyes on the beautiful red velvet carpet.
"So you've come to see me this time, instead of my going to call on you," said Madam Van Ruypen, to set him at his ease.
"Yes'm," said Joel, "Mamsie made me come."
"That's not very polite," observed the old lady, dryly. Which so added to Joel's confusion, that he folded his small brown hands together tightly, with a wild idea of springing off down the long stairs and out of the big house—but Mamsie. Oh, he couldn't do it! So he sat still, hardly daring to breathe.
"However, it doesn't signify, since you are here," Madam Van Ruypen went on, her eyes twinkling, which, of course, Joel couldn't see, as he didn't dare to look up. Then she burst out suddenly into a laugh, long and loud, from which it seemed so difficult for her to get free, that at last Joel tore his gaze off from the carpet and stared at her in terror.
"Oh, I'm through," said the old lady, wiping her eyes; "dear me, and I haven't laughed so for many a day. No, no, Lizette," to the French maid, who popped in her white-capped head at the unwonted noise, "I'm not going to have a fit. Go back to your work. Now then, Joel, do you know what I wanted to see you for, and the errand that made me take all the trouble to call on you the other day?"