XI
Evie Colebrook came home at an unusually early hour and the girl on the bed looked up in surprise.
"I heard mother talking to somebody, but I had no idea it was you, Evie. What is the matter—has your swain another engagement?"
"My swain, as you call him, is working tonight," said Evie, "and it is so hot that I thought I would come home and get into my pajamas."
"Mother has been talking about your eccentric tastes, with particular reference to pajamas," said Christina. "She thinks that pajamas are indelicate. In her young days girls weren't supposed to have legs."
"Father wore pajamas."
"Father also drank. Mother thinks that the pajamas had something to do with it. She also thinks that book reading was a contributary cause."
"What terrible jaw-breaking words you use, Christina. Father did read a lot, didn't he?"
"Father was a student. He studied, amongst other things, race horses. Do you know who father was?" Evie stared at her expectantly.