“Oh, don't praise me, or I shall break down!”
“I'll see that you don't break down,” said Jeff, tenderly. “It's the greatest thing to have you go with me!”
“Why, don't you SEE?” she lamented. “If you went alone, and told your mother that I approved of it, you would look as if you were afraid, and wanted to get behind me; and I'm not going to have that.”
They found. Mrs. Durgin in the dark entry of the old farmhouse, and Cynthia said, with involuntary imperiousness: “Come in here, Mrs. Durgin; I want to tell you something.”
She led the way to the old parlor, and she checked Mrs. Durgin's question, “Has that Miller girl—”
“It isn't about her,” said Cynthy, pushing the door to. “It's about me and Jeff.”
Mrs. Durgin became aware of Jeff's presence with an effect of surprise. “There a'n't anything more, is there?”
“Yes, there is!” Cynthia shrilled. “Now, Jeff!”
“It's just this, mother: Cynthy thinks I ought to tell you—and she thinks I ought to have told you last night—she expected me to—that I'm not going to study law.”
“And I approve of his not doing it,” Cynthia promptly followed, and she put herself beside Jeff where he stood in front of his mother's rocking-chair.