"Hilda leaving? I just met her coming down stairs with all her things on. She looks deuced pretty in her street clothes. What are you sending her for?"
"She gave me insolence. I scolded her for neglecting her work. She said she would go. That's all." Looking at her son searchingly, she added: "Why are you so interested?"
The young man laughed, and, throwing himself into an armchair, proceeded to make himself comfortable.
"Interested? I'm not particularly interested that I know of. I'm sorry if you have to do all the work, that's all."
Mrs. Parkes shook her head ominously as she said:
"Harry, you're your father over again."
Absorbed in reading his newspaper, the young man at first made no answer. Then looking up, he chuckled lightly:
"Mother—you're over-anxious—and like most over-anxious mothers, you're mistaken."
Mrs. Parkes looked at him fondly as she answered slowly:
"My dear boy—I know human nature——"