“Well,”—Uncle Bob came about, suave and smiling once more—“there are any number of charming ladies about. Now let’s just think. Mm! Who? For instance.”
“We-e-ell.” Phœbe gave him a sidewise look. Certain “movie” stars (she could think of two whom she adored!) had loomed first in her mind’s eye. But considering what had so recently transpired, could she venture to mention these young goddesses to Uncle Bob? She felt she could not. And besides might not her father, if he were to marry one of them, find her so attractive that his little daughter——
Staunchly she put jealousy out of her heart. Once Mother had told her that there are different kinds of love, and one could not subtract from another. So if Daddy were to care for a new wife, it did not follow that he would care a whit less for his daughter. And so Phœbe met the problem at its nearest point—the drug-store.
“There’s a new young lady down at Fletcher’s,” she informed Uncle Bob. “And she likes me better than the one did who has the baby. Because as soon as my ice-cream soda is gone, she asks me to have another. Now, wouldn’t she do?”
Uncle Bob looked dubious. “It can’t be somebody who will just ‘do’.”
“I suppose not.”
“And there’s Daddy. You know—in a way—we’ll have to please him.”
At that she felt more jealous than before; but she fought it. “Yes,” she answered steadily, “we’ll have to pick somebody that Daddy likes.—I’ll think again.”
Uncle Bob was thinking, for he was scratching his head as he walked. “Let me see,” he mused. “Let me see.” He gave a quick glance at Phœbe from under lowered lids.
“I can’t seem to remember another good one,” she announced apologetically.