"Why, Nellie," she exclaimed, "I am so glad to see you!"
"You--you have not seen her before then?" inquired her father gravely.
"Oh, dear, no," answered Lola lightly. "Hasn't she told you that?"
John stepped forward impatiently. There must be some good reason for her deceit of them. Surely she should give it, and as Lola turned to speak to Dr. Crossett, he stepped in front of her. "Lola, why did you----"
"Now, John," she interrupted him, "please don't be silly. I see that there is nothing for me to do but confess. I had not meant to tell you until after dinner. I have been very selfish. I have been riding, in an automobile."
"With nobody dreadful, I assure you." She turned to her father, laughing at John's frowning face. "With the wife of one of your old friends, Mrs. Dr. Rupert."
"You see," Dr. Crossett sighed with perfect relief. "Why make mountains out of nothing? Surely we do not begrudge our girl a ride."
"Of course you don't. I met her as I went out of the house. I fully meant to call on you, Nellie dear, but Mrs. Rupert wanted me very much, and besides, I knew that she could help me."
The others were smiling now, quite satisfied, but John's face had not changed, and as he spoke to her, his voice was hard, suspicious.
"Mrs. Mooney says that you have never been to her house. Not once of all the times you have left me to go there."
"If you don't stop interrupting me, John, I will never be able to finish my story. I was just trying to tell you that I had been deceiving you. But now Mrs. Rupert has promised to help me, so I don't mind telling you all about it."
She looked at them, her face slightly flushed, a little embarrassed; but calm and earnest. To Dr. Crossett she seemed like a child, about to confess some little fault, a fault it knows to be already forgiven.
"I am not quite the heartless, selfish girl you seem to think me." There were tears in her eyes now, and her voice trembled. The last trace of displeasure had gone from her father's face. John alone was still standing out against her.
"I know," she continued, "that I have been extravagant, and I am going to make up for it. I have been trying to get pupils for a private kindergarten. I have called upon hundreds of wealthy mothers, and, at last, I think that I have the promise of children enough for a start. That is why I wanted to postpone our marriage, John." She turned to him appealingly: "I could not marry you, dear, before I had earned back the money I had spent so foolishly."