Page:Elizabeth Jordan--Tales of the city room.djvu/193

 she ended lightly. "It might have worried me. I hate to have my affairs talked over by strangers."

She rose as she spoke, but let them sweep her back into her chair amid a whirl of protestations, for another hour of excited questions, ejaculations, and plans for the future. Then they let her go, promising to see her off for the West the next day.

Left alone, her friends dropped meekly into chairs and surveyed each other, Miss Imboden with some embarrassment, Miss Herrick a little triumphantly, the others smiling in serene acceptance of the situation.

Miss Imboden spoke first, as befitted the young person who had discoursed so fluently on the same subject earlier in the evening.

"It's all delightful," she said, "and I'm heartily glad. I hope you won't set me down as a double-dyed young prig who goes about tearing her friends up by the roots in her anxiety to discover whether they are good enough for her. Do you think I should have told Alice that I have not been as—as loyal to her as she thought me?" she asked anxiously.