“I did n't know you would be so good to me,” answered Aline, wiping her eyes.
“Why should n't I be good to you? What reason could I have for not being glad to see you?”
“I don't know,” said the girl, with a touch of bitterness. “Things are so different now.”
Norma sighed for answer and thought of her premonition. She was aware that Connie had deliberately planned this interview, but could find no resentment in her heart. The reproach implied in Aline's words she accepted humbly. She was at once too spiritless for anger, and too much excited by the girl's presence for regret at having come. Her eye fell upon the picture leaning against the chair-back, and a conjecture swiftly passed through her mind.
“Mrs. Deering asked me to come and look at a wedding-present,” she said with a smile.
“Did she tell you from whom?” asked Aline, thrusting her handkerchief into her pocket. She had found her nerve again.
“No.”
“It's from Jimmie.”
“Is it that over there?”
Aline caught and misinterpreted an unsteadiness of voice. She threw herself on her knees by Norma's side.