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"An'
you to set there an' never tell me!" quoth she, "an' Hermy never told
me--well, well! When did ye meet her? Whereabouts? How?"
"About half an hour ago! Coming up the stairs! I carried her grip!"
"Well!" exclaimed Mrs. Trapes, staring, "well, well!" and she continued
to munch candy and to stare and say "well!" at intervals until arrested
by a new thought. "That b'y!" she exclaimed. "Was Arthur with her?"
"No," answered Ravenslee, wrinkling his brows, "I lost him on my way
home."
Mrs. Trapes sighed and shook her head.
"The sun sure rises and sets for her in that b'y--an' him only her
stepbrother at that!"
"Her stepbrother?"
"Yes!" nodded Mrs. Trapes emphatically. "Hermy's ma were a lady, same as
Hermy is; so were her pa, I mean a gentleman, of course. But Hermy's
father died, an' then her ma, poor soul, goes an' marries a good-lookin'
loafer way beneath her, a man as weren't fit to black her shoes, let
alone take 'em off! And Arthur's his father's child. Oh, a good enough
b'y as b'ys go, but wild, now and then, and rough, like his dad.


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