'Oh, I'm so glad it's all settled and over. I'm so glad there'll be no more worry and bother. And really Captain King is one of the nicest-looking men we know--Edith has always said so--and he is so quiet and pleasant in his manner, and very amusing too: that is because he has no pretence. And grateful for small kindnesses; I suppose being so long at sea, and not seeing so many people, he hasn't got blasé. Then he never pretends to be bored--but why are you so solemn, Nan; doesn't it please you?'
'I hope you will be very happy, dear,' she said, in her grave, kind way.
'Then I suppose I must answer his letter at once,' continued Madge, in her excited way. 'But how am I to do it, Nan? See how my fingers are all shaking; I couldn't write. And it would take me a month to find out what to say--and here you are being kept in, when you are always wanting to be out in the open air----'
'Oh, don't mind me, Madge. I will stay in with pleasure, if you want me.'
'But you shan't stay in on my account, dear Mother Nan--not a bit of it--not for all the men in the world. And yet I ought to send him a message. I ought to write.'
'I think, Madge,' the elder sister said, slowly, 'if that is any trouble to you, you might send him a message he would understand, without your writing much--a flower, perhaps----'
'But what sort of flower?' said the younger sister, eagerly.
Nan's face flushed somewhat, and she seemed embarrassed and slow to answer.
'You--you should know yourself,' she said, turning her eyes aside. 'Any flower, perhaps--a bit of--of forget-me-not----'
'Of course that would do very well; but where could you get forget-me-nots just now?'
Nan again hesitated; she seemed to be forcing herself to speak.
'There's a little bit in a button-hole in ----'s window,' she said, at last; 'I saw it there yesterday at least.'
'Dear Mother Nan,' said Madge, enthusiastically, 'you are as clever as twenty Vice-Chancellors! We will walk along at once, and see if it is still there. And in the meantime I will write a word on a sheet of paper--I can manage that anyway--and you might address an envelope----'
'Oh no, I couldn't do that,' said Nan, inadvertently shrinking back.
'Very well, I will struggle through it,' said Madge, blithely; and she went and got writing-materials, and scrawled the few words necessary.
