"Why am I supposed to have been with you at the gate?" "Oh ... tut!" said Doddie. "Well, why?" "Papa needn't know." "Who was with you? Addie?" "Of course!" said Doddie. "Say, band playing to-night?" "I think so." "Come, we go, yes?" "No, I don't care to." "Oh, why not?" "I don't want to." "Come along now?" "No." "With mamma ... you would, yes?" said Doddie, angrily. "I know very well. With mamma you go always to the band." "What do you know ... you little minx!" "What do I know?" she laughed. "What do I know? I know what I know." "Huh!" he said, to tease her, fluking a cannon. "You and Addie, huh!" "Well ... and you and mamma!" He shrugged his shoulders: "You're crazy." "No need to hide from me. Besides, every one says." "Let them say." "Too bad of you though!" "Oh, go to the devil!" He flung his cue down in a temper and went towards the front of the house. She followed him. "I say, Theo ... don't be angry now. Come along to the band." "No." "I'll never say it again," she entreated, coaxingly. She was afraid that he would continue to be angry and then she would have nothing and nobody, then she would die of boredom. "I promised Addie and I can't go by myself...." "Well, if you won't make any more of those idiotic remarks...." "Yes, I promise. Theo dear, yes, come then...." She was already in the garden. Van Oudijck appeared on the threshold of his office, which always had the door open, but which was separated from the inner gallery by a large screen: "Doddie!" he called out. "Yes, papa?" "Will you see that there are flowers in mamma's room to-morrow?" His voice was almost embarrassed and his eyelids blinked. "Very well, papa ... I'll see to it." "Where are you going to?" "With Theo ... to the band." Van Oudijck became red and angry: "To the band? But you might have asked my leave first!" he exclaimed, in a sudden temper. Doddie pouted. "I don't like you to go out, without my knowing where you go. You were out this afternoon too, when I wanted you to come for a walk with me." "Well, doesn't matter then!" said Doddie, bursting into tears. "You can go if you want to," said Van Oudijck, "but I insist on your asking me first." "No, I don't care about it now," said Doddie, in tears. "Doesn't matter! No band." They could hear the first strains in the distance, coming from the Concordia garden. Van Oudijck returned to his office. Doddie and Theo flung themselves into two rocking-chairs in the verandah and swung furiously to and fro, skating with the chairs over the smooth marble. "Come," said Theo, "let's go. Addie expects you." "No," she pouted. "Don't care. I'll tell Addie to-morrow papa so unkind. He spoils my pleasure. And ... I'll put no flowers in mamma's room." Theo grinned. "Say," whispered Doddie, "that papa ... eh? So in love, always. He blushed when he asked me about the flowers." Theo grinned once more and hummed in unison with the band in the distance. CHAPTER THREE