And then it was that Kate discovered the motor attachment of the new machine and was divided between ecstasy and economic qualms.
Hugh swiftly laid the latter. The speculation had gone well—better than his best expectations; he had to break out somewhere, he said.
The breaking out included a tricycle for Muffie, who was ever in hot water with Max for stealing rides on “Trike” just when that gentleman needed the steed himself. A splendid set of croquet was for Pauline, who delighted in the game and had been overwhelmed with sorrow because one night, when mallets and balls “happened” to be left out on the lawn all night, a vagrant cow with a depraved appetite came in and, as Paul said mournfully, “went and chewed corners all over the balls.”
For Lynn, who had been heard bewailing the fact that all the books she loved had been left in the other house, was a large parcel containing six of the most delightful fairy-books in the world.
And, most exciting of all, there were four [p231] volumes, thin certainly, but most gaily bound and gilt-edged and padded up as well as possible with thick paper and pictures—the books they had all written that day in the summer-house.
There they lay, three bound in scarlet and one in green, The Horty Stepmother, by Pauline Lomax; The Fairy who Had, by Lynn Lomax; There was a Dog, by Muffie Lomax; and The Mother who said No, by Max Lomax. Kate was delighted with them and said she would give much to be at the elbow of the Judge and Mrs. Lomax in New Zealand when these choice volumes from their gifted offspring reached them.
For Miss Bibby too there was an offering.
“There aren’t many modern women left who can fitly wear these things,” Hugh said when he showed it to Kate, “but it struck me that it would become a certain old-world air that lingers about Agnes Bibby.”
“Ho, ho,” said Kate to herself, and stole a glance at him; but she allowed warmly that the thing was very pretty.
It was a chatelaine made of finely-fretted silver. The customary thimble, scissors and other useful and feminine trifles dangled there, but there was also added a delicately-chased case that might have been expected to hold a bodkin, but contained indeed a very up-to-date fountain-pen, gold-mounted.