“It is truly said, Mr. Carrington, that it is pleasanter dining here than at her boarding place. This is a beautiful house, so cunning seers tell me; let alone Mr. Latham’s being even more agreeable as a man than as a poet. And it is true that there are many days. There are many of most things, Mr. Carrington; fish in the sea and much besides. So it is well to keep our minds on this well-known fact so’s’t not to let ourselves feel’s if there wasn’t hardly more than one of a thing, day, or whatever it may be. Good-day, Mr. Carrington; I’ll tell Mr. Latham.” “Cryptic cook! Or is she the cook?” thought Kit, amused yet vaguely disturbed. “Sounds like the oracle hinting disaster. That class of woman eats up anticipation of misfortune and licks the platter clean. Seems as though she grudged Anne her comfort! Maybe she’s afraid of automobiles; probably is! But I’m good and ready for a glimpse of my dear. Those Elizabethans had a nice way of calling things: ‛a glimpse of my dear!’ Now that’s nice!” Kit had mused into less disappointment, but there was still enough left to give him a subdued manner, and to shadow his bright face of the morning as he greeted his aunt and Helen. He found them on the piazza; their diaphanous gowns showed that they had returned on a train early enough to have allowed them to change to these from their travelling garb. Beside Helen there stood a basket with a small window in one end. Kit’s animal-loving eye quickly noted it. “My gracious! is Helen setting up a pet?” he wondered. “How are you, Kit?” said Miss Carrington, extending her left hand lazily. “I hope you are all right?” She looked him over sharply. “You look all right! Come, that’s good and sensible!” Helen leaned forward in her chair, holding out her pretty hand. “It seemed queer to come home and not find you, Kit,” she said. “A big boy fills up a house, doesn’t he? And his absence fills it up, too--in another way!” “That’s a kind and delicate implication, Nell, but it’s like Pudd’n-head Wilson’s idea of calling a man a mule; it leaves him in doubt, though the mule is such an admirable character. There are ways and ways of filling up a house, Nell, and boys aren’t popular in the rôle.” Kit shook Helen’s hand merrily and talked glibly, with a happy carelessness that made the girl stare in her turn. “You must have liked keeping house alone,” she said. “I never saw you look jollier, not even when you played on the winning team, ages ago! What’s the news? Are you rejoicing for yourself, or, altruistically, for others?” She contrived to shake her head at Miss Carrington and signal to her that Kit did not know. “Just general well-being; that the world is so full of a number of things,” answered Kit. “I’ve been off with Sirius most of the time since you and Auntie went; haven’t heard any news whatever. Except that little Anne is coming on splendidly.”