"Indeed I didn't! I read only his; but they were enough for two."
"Don't be facetious. I'm too serious. You agreed with me that I must not let such an opportunity as St. Stephen's parish in Sudbury pass without investigation. You wrote yourself that 'it looked like a direct leading'? John dear, now listen, because from this point on you know nothing except my telegram."
The girl leaned forward more eagerly. "Just before I left home, all aglow with the thought of what my first visit would mean to St. Stephen's as well as to myself, I received a letter from Mr. Archibald stating that he was called to Detroit, but that Mrs. Dorrs-Flathers, who was to entertain me, would be both host and hostess in all senses of the words. From the moment the letter came I sensed a new point of view. However, I went on the date appointed and upon the train set.
"I reached Sudbury at eight o'clock Thursday night. Mrs. Flathers's housekeeper met me at the station, and we bowled along behind prancing steeds for nearly an hour before we reached 'Lakeby,' her beautiful Lake shore home.
"Mrs. Flathers was dining out, but had left word that if I were tired not to wait until her return at ten. Of course I didn't wait. I went to bed in the big Empire bedstead in one of the gorgeously furnished chambers of her gorgeously furnished house. We breakfasted at nine the next morning, Mrs. Dorrs-Flathers and Mrs. Dorrs-Flathers's husband. He wore the strangest French dressing-gown I've ever seen, John—a sort of kimono smoking-jacket. If I ever should marry, John, I should not permit one at my breakfast-table."
There was a momentary thump in the counsellor's heart. Here was a new phase of emotion in Theodora's mind. Of her own accord she had never before mentioned her marriage or the possibility of marriage. John March watched her keenly and wondered, while she went on with her story.
"You've met Mrs. Dorrs-Flathers, John?"
"Oh yes. I can hear her now. She indicated herself through her voice. I've almost forgotten her figure, but I can recall her way of saying things perfectly."
"Well, after breakfast Mrs. Flathers took me in town. We visited the guild-house, college settlement, and other Flathers organizations. We lunched at the Teacup Inn—or at least we pretended to lunch. She talked all the time in a vague way, yet very much to the point, in regard to her ideals for my work—if, as she constantly reiterated, I felt it wise to 'accept their offer if they decided to make me an offer.' She spoke of my school of embroidery, and of the cooking-school and the housekeeping department which she wished developed.
"Friday evening she invited the Girls' Friendly Association to 'Lakeby.' Not the poor girls themselves, but the associate members; a group of women the cost of whose beautiful gowns that evening might have established two philanthropic settlements for working-women. She asked me most unexpectedly to talk to these ladies upon my work in New York; and when she introduced me she explained that I was the 'next thing to a Sister of Charity.' I don't know just what she meant, John. Do you?"
"I can imagine what she might have meant," John replied; "but go on with your story."
"Oh, I can't make you feel what I felt. It was all a matter of atmosphere. Up to this particular point she had done nothing, nor had she left undone anything. Yet great waves of doubt and estrangement seemed to envelop me. I felt as some one who might be hypnotized.
"Saturday Mrs. Flathers had engagements. Mr. Flathers stepped in and took me to the country club for luncheon; a most unexpected but very grateful turn of events. I seemed to get hold of myself while sitting in his trap listening to his rehearsal of social events ahead for the autumn. Mr. Flathers remembered you and was very nice in his absurd way, because, of course, he isn't much of a man when you take away his background at 'Lakeby' and his foreground of 'bridge whist.'"
"Don't be too hard on Flathers. He married too young. He really should have waited, as I have, until he knew his mind."
