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 Ponsonby shall explain it to us before we let her climb up that acacia tree tonight . Now that I come to think of it , the first night he called he asked me about her . Wanted to know if her father were the same old blustering tyrant he always was , and if we knew her at all . I 'm afraid I made a little mild fun of her , and he did n't say anything more . Well , I 'm awfully glad now that I did n't fall in love with him . I could have , but I would n't . '' Miss Ponsonby 's appearance at the Hubbards ' party was the biggest sensation Glenboro had had for years . And in her way , she was a positive belle . She did n't dance , but all the middle-aged men , widowers , wedded , and bachelors , who had known her in her girlhood crowded around her , and she laughed and chatted as I had n't even imagined Miss Ponsonby could laugh and chat . Jerry and I revelled in her triumph , for did we not feel that it was due to us ? At last Miss Ponsonby disappeared ; shortly after Jerry and I blundered into the library to fix some obstreperous hairpins , and there we found her and Stephen Shaw in the cosy corner .
There were no explanations on the road home , for Miss XXXXX walked behind us with Stephen Shaw in the pale , late-risen October moonshine .
Glenboro Jerry Ponsonby Shaw fall girlhood grindstones hairpins night years