if so how many others he expected he did not trouble himself to make
clear; but the matter explained itself, when toward five o'clock, the
sound of carriage wheels rattled out on the gravel drive, and in due
time, Miss Bancroft laboriously descended from her equipage, assisted
by her nephew, George Arnold.

"My dear child, how delightful this is! I'm so really glad to see
you," exclaimed Miss Bancroft, taking Nancy's hands in both her own, as
if she had known her all her life. Her frank cordial manner sent a
glow of pleasure to Nancy's cheeks. "I hope you remember that you met
my nephew--for his sake. The idea that you might possibly have
forgotten him has been troubling his vanity for a good eight hours."

Nancy laughingly murmuring that she did remember Mr. Arnold, and
blushing with shyness, shook hands with him. She noticed, without
dreaming of connecting the fact with herself, that he seemed to be in
remarkably good spirits, and that they quite overflowed when he told
her how nice it was to see her again, and what a jolly, funny sort of
party the whole thing was anyway.

"I wasn't going to bring George," observed Miss Bancroft. "He's
usually so tiresomely lazy about tearing himself away from his books or
his own company, that I thought I wouldn't bother him to-day. Then lo,
and behold, he gets into an unbearable fit of sulks, complains that I'm
always ready enough to drag him around with people who bore him to
death, and leave him alone whenever anyone interesting turns up--in a
word goes into a tantrum, and all but weeps with rage, so I had to
bring him." With that she indulged in a chuckle of mischievous
laughter, and patted Nancy's cheek.

A big wood-fire crackled noisily inside the huge stone chimney place in
the living-room, and around it they all gathered in that comfortable,
sociable spirit which is the characteristic mood for tea-time; everyone
felt that they had really known everyone else rather longer than they
had, and while Miss Bancroft poured out their tea, and chattered away
with Uncle Thomas, who stood upright on the hearth-rug, drinking his
tea from the mantelpiece, Nancy and Mr. Arnold chatted away as if it
were impossible to say everything they wanted to in the course of one
short hour or so. As a rule Nancy had a very hard time overcoming her
shyness when she had to talk to a young man. She always felt that she
might say something that they wouldn't understand, or which they might