“Where’d she get this book?” he asked.

“We both got them from Cousin Isobel for Christmas but She—I mean Mother—locked them up and wouldn’t let us write in them,” Marcia said. “I guess Lena took hers out anyway.”

“Where’s your Aunt Lois now?” Papa asked.

“She’s coming home pretty soon, I guess,” Marcia said.

When night came there was still no word of Lena. Papa didn’t come home for supper, but went to Grandma’s and called at the Fair Store, where Mrs. Stewart gave him a suit box.

“You can give these old rags to Mrs. Willard,” she said. “They’re the clothes she had Lena wearing while she herself went around in all her finery. I fixed up Lena to look decent just like I would my own Mary Evelyn, and you can tell your wife I said so. You’ll get the bill, never mind.”

Papa was in such a rage that he vowed if Lena came home he wouldn’t let her in the door, making him the laughingstock of the town. This scandal was as much as his job was worth, he said. His wife was openly pleased to find him in this frame of mind, and told Florrie that her cot was going up in the attic because from now on she would sleep with Marcia. It was as if Lena was gone forever.

32

THE LONDON JUNCTION newspaper gave the news away, and everybody in town, especially Grandma Reed and Mrs. Carmel, said it was just about the most romantic thing they’d ever heard of. “A little bird has just told us,” said the newspaper, “that Mrs. Lois Blair’s long sojourn in the West has not been entirely for the purpose of installing herself in the real estate business out there. On the contrary, Cupid has had a hand in delaying her homecoming. A few months ago Mr. R. L. Sweeney, noted realtor of London Junction and Lesterville, decided he too needed a western climate, and the gist of the matter is that he settled in Pasadena where Mrs. Blair was located, and the two were secretly wed over four months ago. Friends and relatives of the pair were only today notified of the union, inasmuch as the Sweeneys are expected back immediately to take up residence in Mrs. Blair’s home here. The couple were met in Cleveland by Mrs. Sweeney’s niece, Miss Lena Willard, who will make her home with them, according to rumors around town. Congratulations, Mr. and Mrs. Sweeney, and may you not regret your choice of London Junction as your future home in preference to the Golden State.”

“I’d like to see Ed Hartwell’s face when he finds that out,” Papa chuckled to Grandma Reed. He had beckoned Marcia and Florrie to come with him the minute supper was over. He told his wife this was a family matter and before he went to Lois’s to bring Lena home he wanted to have a talk with Grandma, and the girls might as well come along. As usual, as soon as they got off the Furness property, he began to whistle and step quickly, almost as if a chill strong wind issued from his home, blowing him away without any effort on his part. He was plainly delighted that Lena had not taken refuge with Mary Evelyn’s mother and for a moment hesitated at the corner, muttering something about dropping in to tell off Mrs. Stewart.