“Miss Levice,” said he, “I should like to give you a friendly scolding. May I?”
“How can I prevent you?”
“Well, if I were you I should not indulge Bob’s love of luxury as you do. He positively refused to get up yesterday on account of the ‘soft feel,’ as he termed it, of that quilt. Now, you know, he must get up; he is able to, and in a week I wish to start him in to work again. Then he won’t be able to afford such ‘soft feels,’ and he will rebel. He has had enough coddling for his own good. I really think it is mistaken kindness on your part, Miss Levice.”
The girl was leaning lightly against one of the supporting columns. A playful smile parted her lips as she listened.
“Dr. Kemp,” she replied, “may I give you a little friendly scolding?”
“You have every right.” His tone was somewhat earnest, despite his smiling eyes. A man of thirty-five does not resent a friendly scolding from a winsome young girl.
“Well, don’t you think it is rather hard of you to deprive poor Bob of any pleasure to-day may bring, on the ground that to-morrow he may wish it too, and will not be able to have it?”
“As you put it, it does seem so; but I am pugnacious enough to wish you to see it as practically as I do. Put sentiment aside, and the only sensible thing to be done now is to prepare him for the hard, uncushioned facts of an active life.”
“But why must it be so hard for him?”
“Why? In the face of the inevitable, that is a time-wasting, useless question. Life is so; even if we find its underlying cause, the discovery will not alter the fact.”