"No, you're not quite so young, Dora, but you are just as pretty. In fact, you're prettier than ever."
"Oh, you just say that!"
"I mean it, and I'm the happiest fellow in the world this minute," cried Dick, and caught her again in his arms. Once more the hat went over on Dora's ear, but this time she forgot to mention it. Truth to tell, for the time being she was just as happy as he was.
But presently her face grew troubled, and he remembered the look she had given him at the depot.
"Something is on your mind, Dora," he said. "What is it?"
"Dick, do you know that Tad Sobber is alive? That he escaped from that dreadful hurricane in West Indian waters?"
"Yes, I know it. But I didn't know it until a few days ago, when Songbird Powell came to Brill. He said he had met Sobber in Ithaca."
"He came to see mamma."
"I was afraid he would. What did he say?"
"He came one evening, after supper. It was dark and stormy, and he drove up in a buggy. Mamma and I and the servants were home alone, although Nellie had been over in the afternoon. He rang the bell, and asked for mamma,
