"Did she say she would come?"
"Why—no," said Magnus. "I took it for granted."
"Never take anything for granted about Cherry, except that she will do just what is right. She never goes anywhere, Magnus, until she has given her father his breakfast and seen to his morning comfort in every way."
"I should think she might come," Magnus said discontentedly. "It's my first morning home. He could get along for once."
The mother smiled a little at the wide space demanded by the young people in these days, and the side corner deemed enough for the elder; but the usurpers are too lovely and beloved to be resisted. And besides, there is a sort of "while they can"—that checks many a word; the tender, pathetic force of Dr. Bonar's thought:
"Take thou my place, and be thy feast
Sweeter than mine has been!"
"Cherry will not come, Magnus," she said. "She never gets free before ten or eleven o'clock. So tell me why you have done no reading to-day."
"Out of the habit," said Magnus. "I never do it in the morning."
"What is your Bible time?"
"Well, if I can be said to have one, it is more apt to be at night," said Magnus. "I don't always read then, but most generally I do."