For several years he had lived this life, gradually growing hard and careless. But now that he found himself once more an inmate of a respectable family circle, he resumed his gentleness of manner, as it had been a half-forgotten rôle.
"I had been keeping the girls as a little surprise for him, Aunt Deb," said Arthur rather reproachfully. "To meet a girl who has been described to you is like listening to a joke which is told point first."
"I warrant he 'll find plenty to be interested in after he meets them, for all we may tell him," replied Aunt Deb.
"Yes," said Mr. Kendall, "there is something about each girl one meets a little different from any other. At least it was so when I was a boy. I never found any two quite alike."
"I never found one alike any two times," said Arthur, very feelingly; "but their uncertainty, I suppose, is their charm. Come, let's go out and loaf under the trees."
"Thank God, Sunday comes once a week," said Checkers. "I could stand two a week without straining myself."
"The girls are to be home Friday," said Arthur. "Friday night we 'll go down and call, if you'd like to."
"Tickled to death," said Checkers.
"Sadie will probably stay with Pert a while, as her father, Judge Martin, has gone to Texas, and won't be back for a couple of weeks. Sadie's mother is dead, you know, and she and the old man are all alone. By the way, the Judge is rich, and Sadie is rich in her own right, too."
"That settles it, Sadie dear; you 're mine. A fortune-teller told me I 'd marry a rich girl."