'I would like very well,' said she, 'but--but my mother and the lad have driven away to Tongue to fetch my father home--and it may be late before they are back----'
'The greater reason why you should come--why, to think of your sitting here alone! I will come along for you myself. And if you are afraid of having too much of the star-spangled banner, we'll get somebody else in who is not an American; I mean to ask Ronald if he will come in and spend the evening with us--or come in to dinner as well, if he has time----'
Now the moment she uttered these words she perceived the mistake she had made. Meenie all at once looked troubled, conscious, apprehensive--there was a touch of extra colour in her face: perhaps she was annoyed that she was betraying this embarrassment.
'I think some other night, if you please,' the girl said, in a low voice, and with her eyes cast down, 'some other night, when mamma is at home--I would like to ask her first.'
'Class distinctions,' said Miss Carry to herself, as she regarded this embarrassment with her observant eyes. 'Fancy class distinctions in a little community like this--in mid-winter too! Of course the Doctor's daughter must not sit down to dinner with Lord Ailine's head keeper.'
But she could not offer to leave Ronald out--that would but have added to the girl's confusion, whatever was the cause of it. She merely said lightly--
'Very well, then, some other evening you will take pity on us--and I hope before I go to Paris. And then I want you to let me come in now and again and have a cup of tea with you; and I get all the illustrated periodicals sent me from home--with the fashion-plates, you know.'
'What a nice room--it is all your own, I suppose?'
'But I like to see a room look as if it was being used. Well, now, what are these?' she said, going to the mantel-shelf, where a row of bottles stood.
'Why, you don't look sick,' the other said, turning suddenly.
'Oh no. These are a few simple things that my father leaves with me when he goes from home--they are for children mostly--and the people have as much faith in me as in anybody,' Meenie said, with a shy laugh. 'Papa says I can't do any harm with them, in any case; and the people are pleased.'