“No, I should have shut the door in his face if he had,” said Jo, settling herself on the floor at her mother’s feet. “Last summer Meg left a pair of gloves over at the Laurences’, and only one was returned. We forgot all about it, till Teddy told me that Mr. Brooke had it. He kept it in his waistcoat pocket, and once it fell out, and Teddy joked him about it, and Mr. Brooke owned that he liked Meg, but didn’t dare say so, she was so young and he so poor. Now, isn’t it a dread ful state of things?”

“Do you think Meg cares for him?” asked Mrs. March, with an anxious look.