“Then I’ll walk back with you a piece,” Miss Ada slipped her arm through Nancy’s. “And how is your dear Auntie Lou-May? Is her sciatica better?—Glen, my dear, I’ll be back immediately.”
“Not much better, poor dear,” Nancy answered prettily. “But she’s such an angel about it, and I don’t like to keep her waiting when I’ve promised to play cribbage with her.”
“Of course not!” assented the connection warmly. “I’m sorry you couldn’t stop, but it was just wonderful for you to think of coming!”
“Glen Darrow is a nice girl,” said Nancy vaguely. “I always liked her, some way ... and felt sorry for her....”
“Well, so do I, honey, and that’s why I’m staying with her until she can make some suitable arrangement. It just seems to be my part to look after the poor child, alone as she is. Glen has a remarkably fine character, innately refined,” said Miss Ada, as she had said of her Simpson mother. “So pitifully alone, and almost wholly unprovided for——”
“Who was that boy, Cousin Ada?” Nancy interrupted gently.
“Why—why—that is—that isn’t anybody, you might say, my dear. He is a young lad from the mountain districts to whom Dr. Darrow took one of his odd fancies. A very peculiar person, Dr. Darrow, and I pray his standards will not affect Glen’s life too seriously. He always——”
“Does he live in the mountains now, Cousin Ada?”
“Why, no, not just now—not at present, that is. He is employed at your dear father’s mill in some small capacity, I believe.”
“Oh ... at the mill....”