, who had been sitting
quietly, according to request, and "resting", but not resting her
curiosity. "_Who's_ disappointed in love, papa?" she inquired with an
explosive eagerness that slightly startled her preoccupied parents.
"What _is_ all this about Aunt Julia, and grandpa goin' to live alone,
and people committing suicide and prohibition and everything? What _is_
all this, mamma?"

"Nothing, Florence."

"Nothing! That's what you always say about the very most inter'sting
things that happen in the whole family! What _is_ all this, papa?"

"It's nothing that would be interesting to little girls, Florence.
Merely some family matters."

"My goodness!" Florence exclaimed. "I'm not a 'little girl' any more,
papa! You're _always_ forgetting my age! And if it's a family matter I
belong to the family, I guess, about as much as anybody else, don't I?
Grandpa himself isn't any _more_ one of the family than I am, I don't
care _how_ old he is!"

This was undeniable, and her father laughed. "It's really nothing you'd
care about one way or the other," he said.

"Well, I'd care about it if it's a secret," Florence insisted. "If it's
a secret I'd want to know it, whatever it's about."

"Oh, it isn't a secret, particularly, I suppose. At least, it's not to
be made public for a time; it's only to be known in the family."

"Well, didn't I just _prove_ I'm as much one o' the family as----"

"Never mind," her father said soothingly. "I don't suppose there's any
harm in your knowing it--if you won't go telling everybody. Your Aunt
Julia has just written us that she's engaged."

Mrs. Atwater uttered an exclamation, but she was too late to check him.

"I'm afraid you oughtn't to have told Florence. She _isn't_ just the
most discreet----"

"Pshaw!" he laughed. "She certainly is 'one of the family', however, and
Julia wrote that all of the family might be told. You'll not speak of it
outside the family, will you, Florence?"

But Florence was not yet able to speak of it, even inside the family; so
surprising, sometimes, are parents' theories of what will not interest
their children. She sat staring, her mouth open, and in the uncertain
illumination of the room these symptoms of her emotional condition went
unobserved.

"I say, you won't speak of Julia's engagement outside the family, will
you, Florence?"

"Papa!" she gasped. "Did Aunt Julia write she was _engaged_?"

"Yes."

"To get _married_?"

"It would seem so."

"