He looked at her, smiling; she understood well enough why he had come.
“Please put off your coat and come in. We are alone, father and I, having a quiet evening at home!”
“Thank you; I can’t stop; but Mrs. Copeland wished me to ask you to come in to-morrow afternoon. She has an unexpected guest,—a friend from Boston,—and you know she likes everybody to appreciate her friends!”
“Thank you, very much. I shall come if I possibly can.”
She knew that Mrs. Copeland had intrusted Leighton with no such message, for she was on telephonic terms with Zelda, and Morris Leighton was of rather heroic proportions for an errand boy.
“Mrs. Copeland would never forgive me if I forgot,” said Morris, wishing to prolong his moment at the door.
“I shall come if I can,” said Zelda, raising her voice slightly, so that her father might hear.
“And I apologize again for disturbing you. But I feared Mrs. Copeland’s wrath;” and Morris grinned rather foolishly.
“You are a faithful messenger, and I thank you very much,” said Zelda, formally; but when the door closed on him and she heard his step on the walk the tears sprang to her eyes in her joy at the thought that he had remembered!
When she went back to her father he was poring over his papers at the table.