`` 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 Ponsonby walked behind us with Stephen Shaw in the pale , late-risen October moonshine . But when we had sneaked through the neighbour-to-the-left 's lane and reached our side verandah we waited for her , and as soon as Stephen Shaw had gone we laid violent hands on Miss Ponsonby and made her ` fess up there on the dark , chilly verandah , at one o'clock in the morning . `` Miss Ponsonby , '' said Jerry , `` before we assist you in returning to those ancestral halls of yours you 've simply got to tell us what all this means . '' Miss Ponsonby gave a little , shy , nervous laugh . `` Stephen Shaw and I were engaged to be married long ago , '' she said simply . `` But Father disapproved . Stephen was poor then . And so -- and so -- I sent him away . What else could I do ? ''
-- for Jerry had snorted -- `` Father had XXXXX be obeyed .
At after around before in into on that through to