"A little emotion is natural in this case, dear Jennie," he said,
"but you must make allowance for a young girl's shyness. The young
man, I trust, will speak to us about it."
How she would explain to Phyllis had not yet occurred to Joy....
There are times when an education in all the best poets is an
everlasting nuisance.
_"Oh, what a tangled web we weave
When first we practise to deceive!"_
danced through Joy's head.... If only those fatal first sentences
hadn't popped out, and if she only hadn't been too proud to take
them back!
Just the same she continued to feel that a month of life off with
gay, kind people her own age was worth almost any price; which was
exceedingly wrong, and got Joy into a fearful mess, as amateur lying
is apt to do. Because Grandfather rose up after this, with what
Phyllis called his Earl of Dorincourt air, and spoke.
"There is no time like the present for the rectifying of an error.
We will go over now, and explain to Mrs. Harrington that when we
refused our consent to this visit we were unaware of all the
circumstances. Come, my love. Come, Joy."
From sheer paralysis of will power Joy let him draw her hand through
his arm in his accustomed way, and march her off towards the
Harrington cottage between himself and Grandmother. She felt like
Mary-Queen-of-Scots being led to execution, and exceedingly
regretful that she had never learned to faint. Suddenly a wonderful
thought came over her.
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