"Step what, mamma?" from all three of the little girls, as she broke off abruptly, leaving her sentence unfinished.
"Nonsense! be quiet, will you!" she answered angrily.
They waited a moment for her passion to cool; then Adelaide began again.
"What child, mamma? Is papa coming home, and going to bring a child with him?"
"Yes; your brother Horace's child! You may as well know it first as last, I suppose."
Three pairs of eyes opened wide with amazement, three young voices crying out together, "Brother Horace's child! why, mamma, what can you mean? We didn't know he had any. We never even heard that he was married!"
"Of course you didn't," said Mrs. Dinsmore, pushing away her plate; "and probably you never would if this child hadn't been stubbornly determined to live in spite of losing her mother before she was a week old.
"No; we were never proud of the match, and had kept the thing quiet; but now it will be a nine days' wonder to the neighbourhood, and the whole story will have to come out."