“Is he fat?”
“A little. But I don’t mean that way. I mean in making plans. He always has the most wonderful ideas—”
“I’d love Ted. What a shame you didn’t bring him along.”
“He would have been jolly,” agreed the sister wistfully. “But you see, Ted needs to be trained. Being a boy without a father—”
“Just like me being a girl without a mother,” spoke up Rosa. “I’d love to go to camp. In fact, father almost agreed, but Betty! You see Betty believes in white hands and slim ankles.”
“Oh,” said Nancy.
“Want to go around to the other side of the house? We can watch the boats from there. We have a motorboat but that’s one thing dad is strict about. He just won’t let me go on the water at night without him—imagine his having to be along always. And he won’t let me go in a canoe even in broad daylight, unless I almost swear I’ll stay in the cove, or just hug the edge. Dad is such a darling, I never would think of breaking my word to him,” declared Rosa, her hand bruising Nancy’s arm in making the declaration.
“We do feel that way when we love folks, don’t we?” supplied Nancy. “Mother hardly asks me to promise anything, except where something might be dangerous, but it’s fun to keep a promise as well as to break it, if you just think that way. I’ve a chum who spends most of her time planning to fool folks. Maybe I’m old fashioned, but I’ve tried it and it didn’t turn out so funny. Once when I tried to fool Ted by locking him out, he just climbed in a window I couldn’t reach, and I came pretty near having to stay out in the rain all night. You see, Miss Manners, we call her Manny—is to us about like Margot is to you. Except, of course, she isn’t a servant, she’s a dear friend we found last year out at Long Leigh. We had a great time last summer,” Nancy continued. “I’ll have to tell you about it some time.”
“I’d love to hear. You had a shop or something, didn’t you?”
“Yes, a funny little store we turned into almost everything but a church,” laughed Nancy. They were moving around the winding porch and Nancy felt relieved that Rosa seemed to be more contented than she had been at dinner time. Surely she wasn’t thinking of stealing off any place?