Page:Emma Speed Sampson--The shorn lamb.djvu/129

Rh was ready, she caught her hair back with a hair-pin and ran downstairs.

The aunts and Spottswood had that minute seated themselves at the table as Rebecca came running in the room.

"Good morning, everybody!" she cried gaily. "I was so afraid I'd be late to breakfast I almost broke my neck hurrying. Where is my grandfather?" "My father has gone early to the hub factory." said Aunt Evelyn with a manner so chilly that Rebecca looked at her in amazement. There was a slight accent on "my father" that conveyed a subtle suggestion that Rebecca's grandfather and Evelyn's father were not one and the same person. Rebecca had thought, of course, that when her grandfather accepted her as his own flesh and blood the others would do the same. If she belonged to them they would naturally love her. and she would try to love them. Surely, her Aunt Evelyn was not feeling well. A pain somewhere would account for that vinegary expression. The morning was too lovely and she was too hungry to bother much about moods.

"Oh, I had the most heavenly rest! Such a bed! Such delicious eats, whenever I could wake up to know about it! Such—"