He let her hands go and stood back a pace. "Have you grown?" he asked, in a puzzled sort of way.
She shook her head.
"No; but I've got thin—at least, Aunt Madge says I have."
They looked at one another silently for a moment, and the thought of Chris was in both their minds, though it was Feathers who spoke of him.
"So Chris will be home on Thursday?"
She shook her head; for a moment she could not trust her voice. Then she said lightly:
"He's not coming after all. I've just this minute had a wire." She went over to the grate, picked up the crumpled telegram and handed it to him. "It's just come," she said again faintly.
Feathers read it without comment, and Marie rushed on:
"I suppose you've all had such a good time you don't want to come back to smoky old London—is that it?"
"We did have a good time, certainly, but I came back on Monday, and I understood that Knight and Chris were following on Thursday."