The last time Mrs. West had seen Hollis she had wondered how she had ever dared speak to him as she had spoken that morning in the kitchen. Had she effected anything? She was not sure that they were engaged; she had "talked it over" with his mother, and that mother was equally in the dark.
"I know what his intentions are," confided Marjorie's mother "I know he means to have her, for he told me so."
"He has never told me so," said Hollis' mother.
"You haven't asked him," suggested Mrs. West comfortably.
"Have you?"
"I made an opportunity for it to be easy for him to tell me."
"I don't know how to make opportunities," returned Mrs. Rheid with some dignity.
"Everybody doesn't," was the complacent reply.
Marjorie had had a busy day arranging household matters for her mother while she should be gone, and was dozing with her head nestled in the soft folds of the shawl when her mother's step aroused her.
"Child, you are asleep and letting the fire go down."