In the same moment there sounded again a rat-tat at the outer door.

Through his whirling senses, Harvey was aware of the threatened interruption, and all but cursed aloud.

That Alma had the same expectation appeared in her moving so as to assume a more ordinary attitude; but she uttered the word that had risen to her lips.
'The misfortune, you call it ?' Harvey followed her example in disposing his limbs more conventionally; also in the tuning of his voice to something between jest and earnest.
'I said _perhaps_ the misfortune.' 'It makes a difference, certainly.' She smiled, her eyes turned to the door.

'_Perhaps_ is a great word; one of the most useful in the language .-- Don't you think so, Mamma ?' Mrs.Frothingham had just entered..