throw
a few things into my bag. Give us a bite to eat, Mother dear, and tell
Lawson to bring the car around. We must get the seven-thirty."

After her boy and his humble lieutenant had left for the train, the
mother sat a long time on the piazza thinking. The telephone rang at
last. She sighed, went to its corner, and sat down to stop its annoying
peremptoriness. For days it had reminded her of an inescapable, buzzing
gnat, a thousand times magnified.

"Oh, Mrs. Barry," came a girlish voice across the wire. "Don't think me
too inquisitive, but we're all dying to know if that beautiful girl,
Miss Melody, is going to live with Miss Upton? Mrs. Whipp said they were
going to take her to Keefeport with them, and somebody said they did
move to-day and that she did go with them. We thought she was visiting
you and I wanted to ask when we might come to call. We're all dying to
meet her. You know Ben has been a sort of brother to us all, and we're
simply crazy to know this girl and hear about her rescue."

While this speech gushed into Mrs. Barry's unwilling ear, her martyred
look was fixed upon the wall and her wits were working. It was Adele
Hastings talking. She had always liked Adele. In fact this young girl
had been her secret choice for Ben in those innocent days when she
supposed she would have some voice in the most important affair of his
life. She could not turn Adele off as she had other questioners.

"I suppose this is Adele Hastings speaking."

"Oh, didn't I say? I do beg your pardon. I just saw Ben on the station
platform with the queerest little bow-legged boy. Ben looked like a
giant beside him. I just flew home to the telephone to ask how you were
and--and--about everything."

"That is just a servant Ben has picked up." ("A member of our new
menagerie," Mrs. Barry felt like adding, but held her peace and
continued to look at the wall.)

"Well, Mother wanted me to say to you that if you were house cleaning,
or there was any other reason why it was inconvenient for you to have
Miss Melody with you, she would be so glad to have her come to us till
you are ready. I told Mother she had probably gone to Keefeport to
recuperate in the quiet before the season really begins. I haven't seen
Miss Upton or that cross thing that tends store for her, but some people
have, and we've heard such fairy tales about that lovely creature--I saw
her on the train with Miss Upton--about her being shut up with a madman
and Ben