"I'm Philip," he explained, following his mother's example and
introducing himself. "They called me Philip 'cause it was the
nearest thing Faver could get to Phyllis. You see, they didn't know
there was going to be Angela. This is Angela. Isn't she pretty?"
Angela, on being righted and shown off, produced her usual dazzling
smile, and gave Joy a sweet, sidelong look out of her azure
eyes--the look she knew conquered people. They were both, as Phyllis
often said, _such_ satisfactory children for exhibition purposes!
"Oh, aren't they darlings!" cried Joy, forgetting her mission
gladly. "Will--will they mind if I hug them?"
"Not a bit," answered their father, whom Joy had asked. "They are
practically indestructible, and they like petting."
Joy knelt down, putting a shy arm around baby Angela, who, after a
moment's survey of her, kissed her frankly of her own accord, with
two tight little arms around her neck.
Allan had an idea that the newcomer would be more at ease alone with
Phyllis and the children, so he made some excuse about golf (which
he hated) and disappeared. Joy sat down on the grass, with Angela
momentarily in her lap, and Foxy, who hinted that he, too, liked
kind words, at her side.
She had never had so many people (counting dogs) act as if they
liked really her. Foxy and the children didn't care a bit whose
granddaughter she was, and Mrs. Harrington, too, had made friends
with her without minding. But she was conscientious, and she felt
she ought to go on with her errand before she really gave herself up
to the enjoyment of her call.
"My grandfather is giving a reading from his works this evening,"
she said, sitting up mechanically and crossing her hands, "and he
sent me to say that he would be glad if you and Mr. Harrington would
care to come."
"We'd love to," Phyllis answered on the spot. "At his cottage?"
Joy nodded.
"It's fun," Phyllis went on, "leading this semidetached life, with
no responsibilities whatever. There's only one drawback as far as
I'm concerned; if Philip strays off too far somebody may take him
for a rabbit or a deer. The places where there's hunting are only
two miles away. That's why Allan and I were scouring the woods last
night for him. Usually we let him run away as much as he likes, and
the poor child can't understand the new arrangement."
Joy looked down at Philip, who had curled himself into an
indiscriminate heap with the dog, and was taking a nap by way of
whiling away his imprisonment.
"Do you hunt?" she asked.
Phyllis shook her head.
"The way the gun bangs when it goes off worries me. I believe
there's a bangless gun, but even so, you're expected to kill things,
and I think the things are much happier alive. I don't even like the
taste of them cooked. But Allan hunts. He brings game-bags full of
poor little dead things back whenever he's where he can do it. He
hasn't yet, here. We just came, you know."
"I'm so glad you did!" said Joy fervently.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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