And yet it was Miss Felicia herself who was the first to welcome
the reprobate, even going to the front door and standing in the
icy draught, with the snowflakes whirling about her pompadoured
head, until Jack had alighted from the tail-end of Moggins's 'bus
and, with his satchel in his hand, had cleared the sidewalk with a
bound and stood beside her.
"Oh, I'm so glad to be here," Jack had begun, "and it was so good
of you to want me," when a voice rang clear from the top of the
stairs:
"And where's daddy--isn't he coming?"
"Oh!--how do you do, Miss Ruth? No; I am sorry to say he could not
leave--that is, we could not persuade him to leave. He sent you
all manner of messages, and you, too, Miss--"
"He isn't coming? Oh, I am so disappointed! What is the matter, is
he ill?" She was half-way down the staircase now, her face showing
how keen was her disappointment.
"No--nothing's the matter--only we are arranging for an important
blast in a day or two, and he felt he couldn't be away. I can only
stay the night.
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