"You'll stay the evening?" said Mr. Bellew to Jack.
"Not to-night. You will want to talk, and Mrs. and Miss—"
"Jeannie," put in the owner of the name, before Jack had time to finish. "How dare you try to make me grown-up and call me 'Miss,' you that nursed me when I was a tiny baby? For shame, Jack!"
There was quite a distressed look on Jeannie's face, and Jack was sure there would be tears directly, and felt and said that he was ashamed of himself.
"Then take off your overcoat this minute. You are going to say that we must be tired and want to talk to each other, too. You forget that father met us, that we spent three days in London, and have made other halts on the road. To-day we have only been travelling two hours. Father has told all the home news; we are not a bit tired, and now you must stay and tell us about everything and everybody else. Do stay, Jack."
The tone was beseeching, the look no less so. Jack was vanquished before Mrs. Bellew had time to add—
"Yes, do stay. We shall all be glad to have you, and I cannot tell you how much I feel all your kind attentions to my husband."
Mrs. Bellew was in earnest in her welcome and in her thanks to Jack. But she was uneasy. Her eyes had for some time past been opened to the fact that there were many sides to Jeannie's nature, and somehow she dreaded, both for the girl herself and for others, the exhibition of the artless childish side, which most people found so charming, but which she knew to be the least real and the most dangerous of all.
How could Jack Corry refuse the triple invitation? He was actually on his way to Mr. Guiness's house, for of late he had dropped in there on two nights in the week, and he knew that he was expected this evening.
Of late, too, he had begun to delight in seeing a soft flush rise on Norah's cheek when she gave him her hand, or when she noted how he followed her movements with looks of interest and approval. The home of which Norah was the mistress was as well ordered and as refined as Benvora, and there was true comfort at comparatively little cost. He had said to himself, "What a home she will some day make of mine!"