He was close beside her as she turned from the window; and thinking he saw the sparkle of tears in her eyes, he laid a detaining hand on her arm.
"You must be happy to-night, Dot," he said, "for my sake. I should like all the world to be so, and you, my little sister, more than all the rest."
She let him kiss her on the cheek, but stood silent, with lowered eyes.
"What is it, child,—don't you rejoice with me, when I am happier than ever before in my life?"
He gently took her chin in his hand and raised her downcast face. In an instant her arms were clasped about his neck and her head buried against his breast.
Just then they heard Aunt Lettice, in the hall, calling as if she supposed Dorothy to be above stairs.
"Come, Dot," urged her brother,—"they are waiting for us, and we must be off." And kissing her, he quietly unclasped her clinging arms.
At this she drew herself away from him, and fixing her eyes searchingly upon his face, said, "You are so happy, Jack, are n't you, because you and Mary love each other?"
"Why, surely," he replied, wondering at the words, and at her way of speaking them. But he smiled as he looked into her troubled face.
"Do you not think, Jack," she asked, still with that strange look in her eyes, "that when love comes in, it changes all of one's world?"