"No, thank you—yes, I guess I will, I am rather thirsty!" She sat up and eagerly drank the lemonade.
"Were the children naughty? I thought they might amuse you for a while—"
"They were simply diabolical—but just on a par with all the rest! The girls gone to enjoy themselves—and that hateful Hugh running away every day as though afraid I might encroach on his valuable time—and—"
"Hugh? Why, what has he done?"
"He's not been the same since that day we went blackberrying."
"'We have pleasant words for the stranger,
And smiles for the sometimes guest;
But for our own the bitter tone
Though we love our own the best,'"
quoted Mrs. Bonner. "I'm afraid that's your way with Hugh, sometimes, Ivy, and as for the girls leaving you alone, you almost ran them out of the house!"
"They might as least have called in on their way home!"
"Have they gone past?"
"I haven't seen them, but they were to be back about half past four and see, it's nearly six—Ah, here they are now!"