o
speak:

"It is horrid to have to sit here in this stiff, unnatural way, Lucy,
when one is inclined to do something outrageous from sheer happiness.
These long, open cars, where people can see from end to end what
everyone is doing, are hateful inventions. It is perfectly absurd, when
one finds one's self the happiest fellow living, that one is obliged to
look as demure and solemn as if one was in church."

"Then you should have waited, sir," the girl said.

"I meant to have waited, Lucy, until I got to your home; but as soon as
I felt that there was no longer any harm in speaking, out it came; but
it's very hard to have to wait for hours, perhaps."

"To wait for what?" Lucy asked demurely.

"You must wait for explanations until we are alone, Lucy. And now I
think the train begins to slacken, and it is the next station at which
we get out."

"I think, Lucy," Vincent said, when they had approached the house of her
relatives, "you and Chloe had better get out and go in by yourselves and
tell your story. Dan and I will go to the inn, and I will come round in
an hour. If we were to walk in together like this, it would be next to
impossible for you to explain how it all came about."

"I think that would be the best plan. My two aunts are the kindest
creatures possible, but no doubt they will be bewildered at seeing me so
suddenly. I do think it would be best to let me have a talk with them,
and tell them all about it, before you appear upon the scene."

"Very well, then, in an hour I will come in."

When they arrived at the gate, therefore, Vincent helped Lucy and Chloe
to alight, and then, jumping into the buggy again, told the driver to
take him to the hotel.

After engaging a room and enjoying a bath, Vincent sallied out into the
little town, and was fortunate enough to succeed in purchasing a suit of
tweed clothes, which, although they scarcely fitted as if they had been
made for him, were still an immense improvement upon the rough clothes
in which he had traveled. Returning to the hotel, he put on his new
purchases, and then walked to the house of Lucy's aunts, which was a
quarter of a mile outside the town.

Lucy had walked up the little path through the garden in front of the
house, and turning the handle of the door, had entered unannounced and
walked straight into the parlor. The two elderly ladies rose with some
surprise at the entry of a strange visitor. It was three years since she
had paid her la