Lydia met her at the foot of the stairs; she smiled at sight of the new hat.
“I was just coming up, Miss June,” she said. “There’s a letter for Miss Shepstone.”
June held out her hand.
“I’ll take it, and save you the trouble–––” She became conscious all at once of the girl’s admiring eyes, and blushed.
“Do you like my hat, Lydia?” She turned round for inspection.
Lydia admired enthusiastically, as she admired everything of June’s, and forgetful of everything but the moment, June thrust the letter for Esther into her coat pocket and went out blissfully into the rain to meet George Rochester.
George was ardent; he went into rhapsodies over the hat; he forgot to eat his most excellent lunch, and hardly took his eyes off June.
“It’s all so much waste of time this being engaged,” he said with pretended annoyance. “Why don’t we do the trick and get married? What are we waiting for? I’ll take you to the States for a wedding trip.”
June laughed, and protested blushingly that it was much too soon.
“I haven’t thought about it,” she declared, not quite truthfully. “There’s tons of things to see to first. What about my business and Esther?”