This office brought him in person, an hour later, to tell
Penelope that the Colonel was to be at Lapham that night
and next day.
"He came in from New York, in a great hurry, and rushed
off as soon as he could pack his bag," Penelope explained,
"and we hadn't a chance to ask him where he was to be
to-night. And mother wasn't very well, and----"
"I thought she wasn't looking well when she was at the office
to-day. And so I thought I would come rather than send,"
Corey explained in his turn.
"Oh, thank you!"
"If there is anything I can do--telegraph Colonel Lapham,
or anything?"
"Oh no, thank you; mother's better now. She merely
wanted to be sure where he was."
He did not offer to go, upon this conclusion of his business,
but hoped he was not keeping her from her mother.
She thanked him once again, and said no, that her mother
was much better since she had had a cup of tea; and then
they looked at each other, and without any apparent exchange
of intelligence he remained, and at eleven o'clock he
was still there. He was honest in saying he did not know
it was so late; but he made no pretence of being sorry,
and she took the blame to herself.
"I oughtn't to have let you stay," she said. "But with
father gone, and all that trouble hanging over us----"
She was allowing him to hold her hand a moment at the door,
to which she had followed him.
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