`` Oh , Alicia , you look just lovely ! '' I gasped . The name slipped out quite naturally . I never thought about it at all . `` My dear Elizabeth , '' she said , `` it 's like a dream of lost youth . '' We got Jerry ready and then we started for the Hubbards ' , out by our back door and through our neighbour-on-the-left 's lane to avoid all observation . Miss Ponsonby was breathless with terror . She was sure every footstep she heard behind her was her father 's in pursuit . She almost fainted on the spot when a belated man came tearing along the street . Jerry and I breathed a sigh of devout thanksgiving when we found ourselves safely in the Hubbard parlour . We were early , but Stephen Shaw was there before us . He came up to us at once , and just then Miss Ponsonby turned around . `` Alicia ! '' he said . `` How do you do , Stephen ? '' she said tremulously . And there he was looking down at her with an expression on his face that none of the Glenboro girls he had been calling on had ever seen . Jerry and I just simply melted away . We can see through grindstones when there are holes in them ! We went out and sat down on the stairs .
`` There 's a mystery here , '' said Jerry , `` but Miss XXXXX shall explain it to us before we let her climb up that acacia tree tonight .
Alicia Elizabeth Glenboro Hubbards Jerry Ponsonby Shaw grindstones neighbour-on-the-left parlour