“Then you fancy that Meg is not interested in John?”

“Who?” cried Jo, staring.

“Mr. Brooke.  I call him ‘John’ now.  We fell into the way of doing so at the hospital, and he likes it.”

“Oh, dear!  I know you’ll take his part.  He’s been good to Father, and you won’t send him away, but let Meg marry him, if she wants to.  Mean thing!  To go petting Papa and helping you, just to wheedle you into liking him.”  And Jo pulled her hair again with a wrathful tweak.

“My dear, don’t get angry about it, and I will tell you how it happened.  John went with me at Mr. Laurence’s request, and was so devoted to poor Father that we couldn’t help getting fond of him.  He was perfectly open and honorable about Meg, for he told us he loved her, but would earn a comfortable home before he asked her to marry him.  He only wanted our leave to love her and work for her, and the right to make her love him if he could.  He is a truly excellent young man, and we could not refuse to listen to him, but I will not consent to Meg’s engaging herself so young.”

“Of course not.  It would be idiotic!  I knew there was mischief brewing.  I felt it, and now it’s worse than I imagined.  I just wish I could marry Meg myself, and keep her safe in the family.”

This odd arrangement made Mrs. March smile, but she said gravely, “Jo, I confide in you and don’t wish you to say anything to Meg yet.  When John comes back, and I see them together, I can judge better of her feelings toward him.”

“She’ll see those handsome eyes that she talks about, and then it will be all up with her.  She’s got such a soft heart, it will melt like butter in the sun if anyone looks sentimentlly at her.  She read the short reports he sent more than she did your letters, and pinched me when I spoke of it, and likes brown eyes, and doesn’t think John an ugly name, and she’ll go and fall in love, and there’s an end of peace and fun, and cozy times together.  I see it all!  They’ll go lovering around the house, and we shall have to dodge.  Meg will be absorbed and no good to me any more.  Brooke will scratch up a fortune somehow, carry her off, and make a hole in the family, and I shall break my heart, and everything will be abominably uncomfortable.  Oh, dear me!  Why weren’t we all boys, then there wouldn’t be any bother.”

Jo leaned her chin on her knees in a disconsolate attitude and shook her fist at the reprehensible John.  Mrs. March sighed, and Jo looked up with an air of relief.

“You don’t like it, Mother?  I’m glad of it.  Let’s send him about his business, and not tell Meg a word of it, but all be happy together as we always have been.”

“I did wrong to sigh, Jo.  It is natural and right you should all go to homes of your own in time, but I do want to keep my girls as long as I can, and I am sorry that this happened so soon, for Meg is only seventeen and it will be some years before John can make a home for her.  Your father and I have agreed that she shall not bind herself in any way, nor be married, before twenty.  If she and John love one another, they can wait, and test the love by doing so.  She is conscientious, and I have no fear of her treating him unkindly.  My pretty, tender hearted girl!  I hope things will go happily with her.”