“Remember, Aunt Susanna. It was agreed. No Lord Fauntleroy.”
“Exactly,” she returned briskly. “Don’t get a velvet suit. I forbid it; but please order the other things at once. Then, if you want to decline an invitation, it won’t be because you haven’t the proper things to wear.”
“I didn’t know you were so vain.”
“I am, very. Now here is your bank book.” She laid the little leather book on the table. “And here is your check book.” Hugh stepped toward her. “Now, not a word,” she warned. “You know that was agreed upon. The first of every month I shall deposit your allowance to your account.”
Hugh had reached her now. He put his arm around her and kissed her cheek.
“And this afternoon I want you to go on an errand with me. I’ve waked up lately to what a hidebound person I’ve always been: unwilling to move with the world. I’ve decided that I want an automobile.”
Hugh raised his eyebrows. “Well, I can’t see Rex and Regina thrown into the discard.”
“No, neither can I; but there are times when the convenience of a motor cannot be gainsaid. I borrow Leonard’s occasionally, and it is absurd, when you come to think of it, to let a foolish prejudice deprive one of a convenience. A motor is a great convenience.”
“It can’t be denied,” said Hugh, restraining himself from claiming to smell a large and obvious mouse. She was having such a good time.