"No, for you," said the boy.
Philip and Diana exchanged a look.
"There is 'the greatest thing in the world' working again," he said.
They had just finished dessert when Miss Wilbur was called to the telephone.
"Ask him to come up to my room," she answered.
"Is it—Uncle Nick?" asked Bert, his light extinguished.
"No," returned Mrs. Lowell, smiling reassuringly. "You must remember I told you he is not coming."
Philip gave the boy his gay smile. "Bert thought he was going to make a thousand dollars," he said; but the rusty springs of the lad's mind could not respond quickly. He looked at the young man questioningly. "Don't you remember," added Philip, "we have a bet up, one thousand dollars to a cent?"
The boy did not answer. He kept his eyes fixed on the door. Nothing which could be said was able entirely to quiet the apprehension that his uncle would walk in upon him, surrounded as he was by forbidden companions, and a luxury which his tyrant had not been invited to share.
"The gentleman who is coming to call on us is one who knew your mother," said Mrs. Lowell. "You will like to meet him."