"What have you done with your wife, young man?" asked his sister Elsie sportively. "We have seen nothing of her since supper."
"I left her in her room," he answered in a tone in which there seemed a shade of annoyance.
"Have you locked her up there for bad behavior?" asked Rosie, laughing.
"Why, what do you mean, Rosie?" he returned, giving the child a half-angry glance, and coloring deeply.
"Oh, I was only funning, of course, Ned. So you needn't look so vexed about it; that's the very way to excite suspicion that you have done something to her," and Rosie laughed gleefully.
But to the surprise of mother and sisters, Edward's brow darkened, and he made no reply.
"Rosie," said Violet, lightly, "you are an incorrigible tease. Let the poor boy alone, can't you?"
"Thank you, Mrs. Raymond," he said, with a forced laugh, "but I wouldn't have Rosie deprived of her sport."
"I hope," remarked Mrs. Travilla, with a kindly though grave look at her youngest daughter, "that my Rosie does not find it sport to inflict annoyance upon others."
"No, mamma, not by any means, but how could I suppose my wise oldest brother would care for such a trifle?" returned the little girl in a sprightly tone.