"_Don't_ look so shocked, Mother dear, you
know it's true. And the landlady cheating them out of a whole week's
board--"
"Gracious me!" said Mrs. Toland, in a low undertone full of annoyance.
"Did any one ever hear such nonsense! All that is past history now,
Janey," she reminded her young daughter, in her usual hopeful voice.
"Dad sent a cheque, like the dear, helpful daddy he is, and now
everything's lovely again!"
Julia did not ask for Ted until she saw Barbara alone for a moment the
next day. It was about ten o'clock on a matchless autumn morning, and
Julia, stepping from her bedroom's French window to the wide sunny porch
that ran the width of the house, saw Barbara some forty feet away
sitting just outside her own window, with a mass of hair spread to the
sun.
Julia joined her, dragged out a low, light chair from Barbara's room,
and settled herself for a gossip.
"Had breakfast?" Barbara smiled. "Jim downstairs?"
"Oh, hours ago!" Julia said to the first question, and to the second,
with the young wife's conscious blush, "Jim's dressing. He's the most
impossible person to get started in the morning!"
Barbara did not blush but she felt a little tug at her heart.
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