She opened the bedroom door as she spoke. Cicely was lying flat without a pillow in the big bed that always made her seem small and pathetic.
“Hello, Mama!” she exclaimed and added as she saw Atalanta, “What a surprise! I did not know you were dining here tonight.”
“Atalanta has some special news to tell you,” her mother said. “William has asked her to be his wife.”
There was a little pause and then Cicely said,
“How lovely! Now Atalanta will be my sister-in-law.”
She spoke with apparent spontaneity, but Atalanta, who knew every intonation of Cicely’s voice, was suddenly aware that she was acting.
Cicely had known already of William’s proposal, she was certain of it.
“We must go down to dinner,” the Countess said, “it is nearly eight o’clock. You two girls will have time to talk abo
