Catherine removed her coat and hat. The roses dropped to the floor.
"Pretty!" Letty reached for them.
"I'll put them in water." Catherine came back with a vase. "Do you feel sick anywhere, chick?"
"Letty not sick. Get up." Catherine caught the wiggling child, and pulled the blanket into place.
"You lie still, and mother'll be back presently. I must see to dinner for Daddy."
She hurried into the kitchen. Spencer and Marian were under the dining room table, playing menagerie, and unable to answer her except in fierce growls. Charles hadn't come in. Probably Letty wasn't really sick. She had little flurries of indisposition; perhaps she had eaten something.
Charles came in, with a jovial bang of the door, and a shout, "Ship ahoy! Who's at the helm?"
"Don't tell him, Muvver." Marian's head butted the tablecloth aside. "Sh!"
"'Lo, Cath!" He swung her up to tiptoe in his exuberant hug. "Where are the kids?"