"Hunting for an honest man," she returned in her lingering speech.
"Stung!" remarked her brother. "Say, I don't see any symptoms of painting up here," he added, looking around.
"No; you'll have to come down to the academy to see the works of art I'm throwing off," said Phil. "I've been there two days."
Now there was another stir belowstairs and this time it really was the expressman; and Philip's effects began to come upstairs.
"I'm afraid we're dreadfully in the way," said Kathleen; while Edgar held his cigarette between two fingers and moved about, watching the invasion of barrels, boxes, and bedstead, uncertain whether to lend a hand. "Aunt Mary's old duds, as I'm alive!" he thought, seeing Eliza's anxious supervision of each piece as Phil came carrying it in.
"A great way to entertain you, Miss Fabian," said the host brightly.
"What can I do?" inquired Edgar perfunctorily, continuing to get in Phil's way with the assiduity of a second Marcelline.
"If you won't mind being put on the shelf for a minute," said Phil, tired of avoiding him, "I'm going to tote in one more and then we're done." And picking up the astonished Edgar he set him on a barrel which had been placed in a corner, and so succeeded in bringing in the heaviest of the boxes undisturbed.
Edgar, very red in the face, swung his patent leather feet for a minute and then jumped down. "We must be going, Kath," he said stiffly.