so narrowly missed something so vastly, absorbingly interesting.
From Delia’s room a voice came calling as, at intervals, other voices were heard calling other names throughout the neighbourhood—they were at one with the tinkle of the bells and the far-off yodel of the boys.
“Delia!”
“Good night,” said Delia, briefly, and vanished without warning, as at the sound of any other taps. Soon after, the others also dis- appeared; and I crept up on the porch and lay down in the hammock.
“What’s she been doing now?” somebody instantly asked me.
For a moment I thought of telling; but not seriously.
Evidently they had not expected an answer, for they went on talking.
“ . . . yes, I had looked forward to it for a long while. Of course we had all counted on it. It was a great disappointment.”
Somewhere in me the words echoed a familiar and recent emotion. So! They too had their disappointments . . . even as we. Of course whatever this was could have been nothing like
