mother are coming!" And with that she rushed around to the stable door,
just in time to meet the returning travelers, and ask a dozen
questions--the first:

"_Did_ you get a letter from Maurice?"

But when her father threw the reins down on Lion's back, and said,
briefly, "Can't you unharness him yourself, Buster?" she stuck out her
tongue, opened her eyes wide, and said nothing except, "Yes, father."
Then she proceeded, with astonishing speed, to put Lion into his stall,
run the buggy into the carriage house, and slam the stable door, after
which she tore up to her mother's room.

"Mother! Something has bothered father!"

"Well, yes," Mrs. Houghton said; "a little. Maurice is married."

Edith's lips fell apart; "Maurice? _Married_? Who to? Did she wear a
veil? I don't see why father minds."

Mrs. Houghton, standing in front of her mirror, said, dryly: "There are
things more important than veils, when it comes to getting married. In
the first place, they eloped--"

"Oh, how lovely! I am going to elope when I get married!"

"I hope you won't have such bad taste. Of course they ought not to have
got married that way. But the thing that bothers your father, is that
the lady Maurice has married is--is older than he."