"No company! What kept you there?"
"O, Tom!"
"What kept Tom?"
"Mrs. Wishart got sick, you see, and couldn't get away, poor soul! and that made her stay so long."
"And you had to stay too, to nurse her?"
"No, nothing of that. Miss Lothrop was there, and she did the nursing; and then a ridiculous aunt of hers came to help her."
"You staid for sympathy?"
"Don't be absurd, Philip! You know we were kept by Tom. We could not get him away."
"What made Tom want to stay?"
"O, that girl."