"Y’know," said the latter, taking a reflective survey of the faces round him and then leaning one elbow against the wall, "I think I must be the most reviled, misunderstood poor doer-of-good in this whole floatin' earth! I try to do Sophie some good, I honest-Injun do! And…"
"How are you going to do her good by sticking winkle-stalls and coconut-shies all over the lawn?"
"Never you mind," H.M. told him darkly. "They don’t understand the old man, that's all. They see the result, when it's all over. Then they say, 'How curious! The silly old dummy did it by accident'"
His peroration — in which he inquired, rhetorically, whether he was indignant when a skeleton stuck its head but of an electric car to blow raspberries at him; and replied by saying he was the most forgiving soul on earth — his peroration was cut short by the husky chuckle of Stannard.
Stannard looked in fine form this morning, hearty and clear of eye, with hardly a trace of limp.
"Ruth," he said, "something tells me this would be a sight worth seeing. Would you care to go?"
"I'd love to!"
"I'm going too," announced Aunt Cicely, tripping up several steps and running down to look at them, in unconscious pose against the tall window. "Only not until this afternoon, when I'm properly dressed."
Ruth looked worried.
"Cicely, do you think you ought? You heard what Dr. Laurier said only this morning. Shock, or excitement…"