"I see. Of course that is silly, although your attitude toward his
suspicion is hardly flattering to me."
He smiled up at her.
"I told him that I had asked you to bring me here to-day. He was furious.
And that wasn't all."
"No?"
"He said I was flirting desperately with Dr. Wilson. You see, the day we
went through the hospital, it was hot, and we went to Henderson's for
soda-water. And, of course, Joe was there. It was really dramatic."
K. Le Moyne was daily gaining the ability to see things from the angle of
the Street. A month ago he could have seen no situation in two people, a
man and a girl, drinking soda-water together, even with a boy lover on the
next stool. Now he could view things through Joe's tragic eyes. And there
as more than that. All day he had noticed how inevitably the conversation
turned to the young surgeon. Did they start with Reginald, with the
condition of the morning-glory vines, with the proposition of taking up the
quaint paving-stones and macadamizing the Street, they ended with the
younger Wilson.
Sidney's active young brain, turned inward for the first time in her life,
was still on herself.
"Mother is plaintively resigned--and Aunt Harriet has been a trump. She's
going to keep her room. It's really up to you."
"To me?"
"To your staying on. Mother trusts you absolutely. I hope you noticed
that you got one of the apostle spoons with the custard she sent up to you
the other night. And she didn't object to this trip to-day. Of course, as
she said herself, it isn't as if you were young, or at all wild."
In spite of himself, K. was rather startled. He felt old enough, God knew,
but he had always thought of it as an age of the spirit. How old did this
child think he was?
"I have promised to stay on, in the capacity of watch-dog, burglar-alarm,
and occasional recipient of an apostle spoon in a dish of custard.
Lightning-conductor, too--your mother says she isn't afraid of storms if
there is a man in the house. I'll stay, of course."
The thought of his age weighed on him. He rose to his feet and threw back
his fine shoulders.
"Aunt Harriet and your mother and Christine and her husband-to-be, whatever
his name is--we'll be a happy family. But, I warn you, if I ever hear of
Christine's husband getting an apostle spoon--"
She smiled up at him. "You are looking very grand to-day. But you have
grass stains on your white trousers. Perhaps Katie can take them out."