September. The
house had been talking of sending him for some
time, and had been waiting for certain developments
which had suddenly developed, and he
would have to go. Would she go with him, and
if she would not he never expected to come back
again, but would stay over there and take charge
of the South-American branch of the house he was
going to establish. She would have to decide
at once, as he couldn't stay a minute later
than the 30th. They could be married anywhere
she said, only it must be quickly done. He had
gotten the telegram an hour before, and in the
morning she must get Kitty Canary to fix things
so he could see her and talk more fully. Kitty
could be depended on and would manage
somehow. The rest being private and personal, I
skipped it and gave the note back to Amy, who
was as white as the dress she had on, and her
hands as limp as wet kid gloves.

Excited! To my dying day I will never
forget the thrill of it. Being in love myself, as I
had once thought, wasn't a circumstance to it,
and the other girls were as bad as I. To help
a heart-yearning, backboneless young girl
escape from the captivity of a cast-iron
grandparent was something no red-blooded person
could refuse, and every one of us agreed that the
only thing for Amy to do was to walk into the
den of lions and tell the head lioness the truth;
ask her permission to many the man she loved,
and, if she would not give it, to take it, anyhow,
and tell her farewell and leave at once for South
America. That, at least, was what I thought
ought to be done, and after a while the others
thought so, too. At first there was a lot of
argument, but I told them I would never agree to
Amy's running away to be married without her
first telling her grandmother she was going to do
it. That is, if she would not let her be married
at home. If the G. M. would not let, then Amy
could take the first train out, but she mustn't
take it until she had shown her grandmother the
respect she did not deserve. I never could bear
runaway marriages. There's always something
so common about them, and I wasn't going to be
party to one if I could help it.

All the time we were talking we left Amy out
of it, and never once asked her what she
preferred in the matter. The reason we didn't was
the poor little thing was so frightened and
distressed that she could not open her lips. We
would not let her come down-stairs with us, and
when we said good nigh