He held the letter up to his ear whimsically. Then he handed it back to her, and she replaced it in the desk.
“So, there it is, and there it is,” he sighed. “You have got my story, and it’s bad enough, but you can see it’s not what Burlingame suggested.”
“Burlingame—but Burlingame’s beneath notice,” rejoined Kitty. “Isn’t he, mother?”
Mrs. Tynan nodded. Then, as though with sudden impulse, Kitty came forward to Crozier and leaned over him. The look of a mother was in her eyes. Somehow she seemed to herself twenty years older than this man with the heart of a boy, who was afraid of his own wife.
“It’s time for your beef-tea, and when you’ve had it you must get your sleep,” she said, with a hovering solicitude.
“I’d like to give him a threshing first, if you don’t mind,” said the Young Doctor to her.
“Please let a little good advice satisfy you,” Crozier remarked ruefully. “It will seem like old times,” he added rather bitterly.
“You are too young to have had ‘old times,’” said Kitty with gentle scorn. “I’ll like you better when you are older,” she added.
“Naughty jade,” exclaimed the Young Doctor, “you ought to be more respectful to those older than yourself.”
“Oh, grandpapa!” she retorted.