“Why not, chérie ?” asked Miss Belle.

“He’s too old.”

“My child, what do you mean? What is his age, I beg to know!” cried Miss Clara.

“Nearly seventy, I believe,” answered Meg, counting stitches, to hide the merriment in her eyes.

“You sly creature! Of course we meant the young man,” exclaimed Miss Belle, laughing.

“There isn’t any; Laurie is only a little boy,” and Meg laughed also at the queer look which the sisters exchanged as she thus described her supposed lover.

“About your age,” Nan said.