"Bob, Bob, don't say such dreadful things! You frighten the life out of me!" screams Lottie, clinging to her aunt.
"Bob, you're a—a wretch, and I wish I was dead!" cries Pauline, flinging herself across the table in a storm of sobs.
Then Addie rises and speaks for the first time, her arm around her sister's heaving shoulders.
"Don't fret, Polly, don't fret. Never mind them; you'll live at Nutsgrove with me. I'll give you a home, dear."
"Addie!"
"I'm quite serious, Pauline—I mean what I say."
Adelaide's voice is very steady and grave, and there is a tone in it that arrests the stormy attention of the family.
"Mr. Armstrong asked me this afternoon to marry him."
"Eh? What did you say?"