The handsome elderly lady and her two placid, brown-eyed daughters presented quite a contrast to the visitor, who burst impetuously into the room with crimson cheeks and blazing eyes, and, scarcely waiting for the customary greeting, exclaimed in an excited voice:
"Mrs. Meredith, where has Laurie gone?"
"My dear Jewel, what is the matter? You look as if something dreadful had happened," exclaimed the matron.
"Yes, indeed you do," chimed in Edith and Io, as both came up to her in consternation.
"Something has happened!" Jewel cried, angrily. She flung herself into a cushioned chair, and continued: "Laurie has proved false to me! He has followed that girl to Washington!"
She flung his note into Mrs. Meredith's lap, and the stately matron adjusted her glasses in great trepidation, and ran over it quickly.
"But, my dear Jewel, he does not say anything here about going to Washington. He says, called away on business," she remonstrated, gently.
"Pshaw! a blind, a weak, transparent excuse!" Jewel answered, in a sharp, high-pitched voice. "Pray tell me what excuse he made to you!"
The warm color mounted to Mrs. Meredith's cheek at this haughty arraignment; but making excuses to herself for the girl's excitement, which evidently arose from jealousy, she answered:
"He told me that he was called South by some very important business, the nature of which he could not explain until his return."