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The people at Norton think it was Poppar's doing, but I'll tell you straight that I asked him to send for me. ... Life's a big chance. We've got to make the best we know out of it, for ourselves and other people. I don't mean to spoil things for us both. ... You didn't want to love me! Right at the back of your mind you've felt all the time that I was not your mate.
The parental summons arrived ten days after the date of Elma's formal engagement, and at the expiration of the seventh week of Cornelia's sojourn in England. There it was for all the world to see; short, authoritative, and to the point. Circumstances had altered Poppar's plan. His visit to Europe must be postponed, he desired his daughter to return home by the first possible boat.
"Just over three weeks, and I like it pretty well, thank you," returned Cornelia, anticipating the inevitable question, "though I guess I've not struck the liveliest spot in the land. I'm located with my aunt, Miss Briskett, in the Park, and my poppar's coming over to fetch me in the fall." Madame's interest waned with surprising suddenness.
We've been a bit fratchetty this last week; gotten on each other's nerves somehow but when I come back we can make a fresh start. In America, girls have more liberty than over here; but there's not a mite of reason why we should quarrel over it. You're my own Poppar's sister, and I came quite a good way to see you. It's a pity if we ken't pull it off for the next few months.
She rose to take the teacup from her aunt's hand, and to help herself to a couple of sandwiches from a dainty heart-shaped dish. "Well aren't you pleased to have me, Aunt Soph? I've wanted years to come over and see you. It seemed too bad that I knew none of Poppar's people. And now I'm here!"
As for Aunt Soph, she's acted pretty meanly, letting me come along when she hated to have me, but for Poppar's sake I'll be as meek as I know how. I thought we were going to be friends, but she's such a back number she don't even remember how it felt to be a girl, and it's not a mite of use arguing. She thinks she knows better than I do!" Cornelia gurgled amused incredulity.
In spite of all! For only that?" "It's a very big `only, Miss Briskett. You don't know how it feels to have your income suddenly reduced by two-thirds." "Oh, don't I just! I know how it feels to have it wiped clean away. I guess my Poppar's dropped about as much in one slump as any man in the States!" cried Cornelia, with the true American's pride in size, be it for good or ill.
We've had spells when Poppar's had bad luck, and the money's been short, but we were as happy as grigs planning out how we'd spend the next pile. So long as you can get along, it doesn't matter much about the extras, when you're as happy together as we are, Poppar and I." Mrs Moffatt sighed once more. "I never knew my parents.
She did not feel it necessary to state that the lost fortune had been more than retrieved, for one of the very few points on which she found herself in complete agreement with her aunt, was the suppression of her own wealth. She had no wish to be judged from a monetary standpoint, and Poppar's fame had not travelled across the ocean.
Later on she would make a longer visit to town, in Poppar's company, but even if the invitation were given she could not consent to remain any longer the guest of Mrs Silas P Moffatt. She was a woman whom it was impossible to respect, and to Cornelia, respect was a necessary foundation to friendship. Silas did not count! He was "a little misery," to be regarded only as an adjunct to his wife.
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