“So we were, mamma, but Dr. Ingle came, and we all went down into the drawing room to see him,” replied Elva.
“He always does cry for her—I mean inquire for Miss Meeke—and she always goes down to see him, and makes us go down with her. And he doesn’t like it at all, and neither do we. Why, the other evening, when he came just after tea, when you had a headache and Odalite was sitting with you, and we were in the drawing room with Miss Meeke, after a little while, he said:
“‘Do you not think that it is very unhealthy for children to sit up so late?’
“And she laughed and said:
“‘Their regular bedtime is nine o’clock. It is not yet seven.’
“And it is always so. He always looks at us as if he was saying to himself:
| “‘Two is company, Four is trumpery.’ |
“But this time, thank goodness, we happened to hear Le’s voice in the hall, and we skedaddled—I mean we left the drawing room and came in here, mamma, dear,” said Wynnette.
“What did Ingle talk about, or find to talk about, while you two were hanging around him like a wet blanket?” inquired Le, who often amused himself at Wynnette’s expense.
“Oh, not much. He couldn’t make love to Nat right before our four looking eyes—I mean he couldn’t pay his addresses to Miss Meeke in our presence. Neither could he talk to Nat about old Col. Notley’s gout, or old Mrs. Gouph’s dropsy, like he does to mamma—I mean he could not discuss medical science with Miss Meeke as he might with a matronly lady. And so there wasn’t much to talk about,” said Wynnette.