"What's it all about?" asked Kate, coming up to them; but they paid no heed to her, and she went to Vi for the desired information.
"Why, I'll help, of course I will," she said; "I guess I've got some money, I'll look after tea; there's the bell now."
Elsie seized an opportunity to petition her mother for a longer talk than usual in her dressing-room that evening, and the most of it was taken up in the discussion and arranging of plans for helping Mrs. Gibson and her daughter.
"What an unconscionable time you've been upstairs, Elsie," Philip remarked in a bantering tone, coming to her side as she and her mother returned to the drawing-room. "I've been dying to speak to you, as the girls say."
"All girls don't talk so, Phil."
"You don't, I know. Would you like a gallop before breakfast to-morrow morning?"
"Yes, indeed!" she answered, her eyes sparkling, "it's what I'm used to at home. Papa rides with us almost every morning."
"Will I do for an escort?"
"Oh, yes, if mamma consents. Gert will go too, won't she?"
"No, she prefers her morning nap."