"Shirley did it yesterday afternoon," Hilary explained. "She was over
here a good while. Mrs. Boyd let us have the things and the chintz for
the cushions, Shirley made them, and we filled them with hay."
Pauline, sitting on the edge of the low porch, looked about her with
appreciative eyes. "How pleasant and cozy it is, and after all, it
only took a little time and trouble."
Hilary laid her new book on the table. "How soon do you suppose we can
go over to the manor, Paul? I imagine the Dayres have fixed it up
mighty pretty. Mr. Dayre was over here, last night. He and Shirley
are ever so--chummy. He's Shirley Putnam Dayre, and she's Shirley
Putnam Dayre, Junior. So he calls her 'Junior' and she calls him
'Senior.' They're just like brother and sister. He's an artist,
they've been everywhere together. And, Paul, they think Winton is
delightful. Mr. Dayre says the village street, with its great
overhanging trees, and old-fashioned houses, is a picture in itself,
particularly up at our end, with the church, all ivy-covered. He means
to paint the church sometime this summer."
"It would make a pretty picture," Pauline said thoughtfully. "Hilary,
I wonder--"
"So do I," Hilary said. "Still, after all, one would like to see
different places--"
"And love only one," Pauline added; she turned to her sister. "You are
better, aren't you--already?"
"I surely am. Shirley's promised to take me out on the lake soon.
She's going to be friends with us, Paul--really friends. She says we
must call her 'Shirley,' that she doesn't like 'Miss Dayre,' she hears
it so seldom."
"I think it's nice--being called 'Miss,'" Patience remarked, from where
she had curled herself up in the hammock. "I suppose she doesn't want
it, because she can have it--I'd love to be called 'Miss Shaw.'"
"Hilary," Pauline said, "would you mind very much, if you couldn't go
away this summer?"
"It wouldn't do much good if I did, would it?"
"The not minding would--to mother and the rest of us--"
"And if you knew what--" Patience began excitedly.
"Don't you want to go find Captain, Impatience?" Pauline asked hastily,
and Patience, feeling that she had made a false move, went with most
unusual meekness.
"Know what?" Hilary asked.
"I--shouldn't wonder, if the child had some sort of scheme on hand,"
Pauline said, she hoped she wasn't--prevaricating; after all, Patience
probably did have some scheme in her head--she usually had.
"I haven't thought much about going away the last day or so," Hilary
said. "I suppose it's the feeling better, and, then, the getting to
know Shirley."
"I'm glad of that." Pauline sat silent for some moments; she was
watching a fat bumble bee buzzing in and out among the flowers in the
garden. It was always still, over here at the farm, but to-day, it
seemed a different sort of stillness, as if bees and birds and flowers
knew that it was Sunday afternoon.
"Paul," Hilary asked suddenly, "what are you smiling to yourself about?"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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