I'm glad to be
home again." The girl was unaffectedly sincere in her statement.
The glove was off and Mrs. Stanton was surveying her hand, wriggling the
fingers tentatively.
"And they all seemed so glad to see me that I'm a bit penitent," Lana went
on. "I'm ashamed to own up to myself that I have allowed California and
Palm Beach to coax me away from Marion these last two winters. I ought to
have come down here with father. I'm not talking like a politician now,
Doris. Honestly, I'm stanch for old friends!"
"I trust you don't think I'm an ingrate in the case of my own old friends,
Lana!" Mrs. Stanton, unappeased, was willing to take issue right then with
anybody, on that topic. "But the main trouble with old friends is, they
take too many liberties. Your old friends certainly did take liberties
with my poor hand, and they took liberties with your own private business
in my hearing."
"How--in what way?"
"I overheard persons say distinctly, over and over again, that one feature
of this--no, I'll not muddle my own ideas of society functions by calling
it a reception--they declared that your father proposes to announce
to-night in his home town your engagement to Coventry.
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