Without doubt this was Mrs. Jasher arriving
at last, and Lucy ran out of the room and down the stairs to
welcome her in her eagerness to get Archie seated at the dinner
table. The young man lingered by the open door of the
drawing-room, ready to welcome the widow, when he heard Lucy
utter an exclamation of surprise and became aware that she was
ascending the stairs along with Professor Braddock. At once he
reflected there would be trouble, since he was in the house with
Lucy, and lacked the necessary chaperon which Braddock's
primitive Anglo-Saxon instincts insisted upon.
"I did not know you were returning to-night," Lucy was saying
when she re-entered the drawing-room with her step-father.
"I arrived by the six o'clock train," explained the Professor,
unwinding a large red scarf from his neck, and struggling out of
his overcoat with the assistance of his daughter. "Ha, Hope,
good evening."
"Where have you been since?" asked Lucy, throwing the Professor's
coat and wraps on to a chair.
"With Mrs. Jasher," said Braddock, warming his plump hands at the
fire. "So you must blame me that she is not here to preside at
dinner as the chaperon of you young people."
Lucy and her lover glanced at one another in surprise.
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