"Let me send you home in the carriage," he said, eagerly.
"Thank you, no; I will take a car," Violet replied, so decidedly that he did not press the matter further.
It was very late when she reached home, and she found her sister quite anxious over her prolonged absence.
"Where have you been, Violet?" she demanded, somewhat impatiently; "it is not the proper thing at all for you to be out so late alone. Mercy! and you are all in black, too; I should think you had been at a funeral."
"I have; I have been to Mrs. Richardson's funeral," Violet replied, hot tears rushing to her eyes.
Mrs. Mencke looked startled.
"Mrs. Richardson!" she repeated. "When did she die?"
"Day before yesterday; and it was all by chance that I saw the notice of her death in a paper. She died very suddenly of heart disease."
"I wish I had known it, I would have gone with you," said Mrs. Mencke, looking disturbed.
"Would you?" Violet exclaimed, surprised.