Arthur, I am afraid,
by dancing attendance on him. He will be so frightfully important and
overlordish, but all that will be changed now. I am really a very
domineering person."

When Martha took Thursa upstairs to remove her wraps she said, as she
tucked in her curls before the glass: "It does seem so gorgeous to be
away without an aunt. I have three of them at home, you know, and
they have always taken the wildest interest in me, and there was
always one ready to come with me every place. They are not old
really, but they seem old to me, and I really expect they will never
die. They have heaps of money, too, and so I simply had to be civil
to them. I had a perfectly ripping time on the boat. My aunts put me
in charge of the Bishop of Donchester, and he was a perfect love and
went to his stateroom so early every evening, and slept in a steamer
chair every afternoon until he got ill, the old dear, and then he
didn't appear at all for three days, and I really had such jolly fun.
It did seem such fun not to be bothered with some one stalking me all
the time. There were such pleasant people, too, on shipboard!'"

Martha remembered what Pearl had said about the English girl who had
changed her mind coming over on the boat, and, making an excuse about
having dinner to see to, went down stairs and sent Pearl up to
Thursa. Pearl would get at the true state of affairs quicker than any
one else.

"Did you have a pleasant journey?" Pearl asked, when she went
upstairs.

"Oh, rather!" said Thursa. "It was simply heavenly to be away any
place without an aunt. I was just telling Martha I have three of
them--Aunt Honora, Aunt Constance, and Aunt Prudence. They have
dangled their money over my head for years, but I don't care now if I
never get it. They've always done everything for me. They picked out
Arthur for me because his uncle is a bishop, and they do adore
bishops."

"But didn't you like Arthur first--yourself--anyway?" Pearl
exclaimed, hanging on to the chair in her excitement.

Thursa pursed her pretty lips. "Well enough--oh, yes, real well--and
I liked him awfully when he decided to come to Canada--it was so
splendid and dashing of him, I thought, and I was simply wild to
come, too, for the adventures!"

"The what?" Pearl asked.

"The adventures. It must be perfectly jolly to chase Indians and
buffaloes and bears. Wouldn't it be a lark to send one home?"

Pearl winked hard, wondering if it was an Indian, a buffa