Page:Claire Ambler (1928).djvu/35

 down to the rocks with me if you wanted to, couldn't you?"

"Not to-night, I'm afraid."

"But you could!"

She shook her head sadly. "No—not if I'd promised my mother."

"But why should she"

"She's old-fashioned, Nelson."

"Oh, dear me!" he said, much depressed. "But anyhow"

"Anyhow we'll see a lot of each other," she interrupted cheeringly, and she gave him a swift, bright look that lifted him to a state of adequate consolation. "Gracious!" she cried. "If you knew all I have to do!" And with that, she said, "G'by!" and flitted lightly up the driveway, while he stood gazing after her in precisely the fond condition she wished. She would see him again, she knew, in about four hours; and she now economically put him out of her conscious thought just as a cook who has set a dish in the oven to bake for some similar length of time, puts it out of her mind and turns to other matters. She went briskly to the selection of her dress, while young Nelson, having watched her out of sight, reverently picked a leaf from the ivy that climbed one of the