Edith caught the expression on Cosden's face and almost laughed.
"What's the use?" he whispered to her without being detected. "This pace is too swift for me! He reeled that off as easily as I could the latest quotations on copper!"
"Oh, Philip!" Mrs. Thatcher exclaimed, "I can't tell you what it means to me to see you yourself again after that awful shock you gave me at Bermuda! Truly, when we left you behind us I gave up hope."
"What hope there was you took away with you, so I was forced to follow."
"Come, Cossie—Connie—," Edith stumbled,—"if I'm to call you by your given name you'll have to change it to something reasonable,—this is no place for us."
"Don't let us drive you away," Marian protested.
"That's all right; we want to be driven away. If we stay longer, and Mr. Hamlen talks like that, Mr. Cosden will become sentimental.—Bye, bye."
Mrs. Thatcher and Hamlen watched them as they strolled leisurely up the path, Edith swinging her parasol and Cosden walking meekly beside her. Finally Marian turned to him and laughed.
"What a dance that girl is leading him!"
"Do you think she cares for him?"