“Poor Dodo!” whispered Eleanor to Polly. “What a life she must have had with her mother, at such a resort as the Hot Springs.”
“Darling child!” cried Mrs. Alexander, reprovingly, to Dodo. “Some day you will appreciate such a devoted love as adoring Algernon has for you. At present you are too young to understand it.”
“I am as old as Polly and Eleanor, Ma, in spite of your denials of my true age. I think it is too silly for anything—the way you tell people how grown up I am for my tender age! How much older I look than I really am! That I ought to be in school, with my hair in pigtails! Now, I’m going to have it out, since Daddy is here to stand by me. The next time you start in to sigh about my precociousness for my age, I’m going to tell right out how old you are. I’m going to inform people that you married very late in life, and that I am a child of your old age.”
Ebeneezer Alexander smiled approvingly at his daughter’s threat, and the others in the group had difficulty in controlling their facial muscles—not that the elders approved of such remarks to a parent, but Mrs. Alexander’s was an exceptional case, and Dodo happened to be a very frank, even blunt, character, much like her father’s. Mrs. Courtney heard and saw the attitude between mother and daughter, and she was intelligent enough to understand the situation without any other explanations. She felt that possibly she might be of great service to both.
But Mrs. Alexander now commanded all attention. Dodo’s speech could not be denied by her, so she took refuge in her usual way—hysterics. All present, but Dodo and her father, rushed around in search for smelling-salts and other remedies, but the two who should have been most concerned were least concerned. They understood that the third member of the family would come out of her attack instantly, once she realized no one paid any attention to her. Now, however, she continued the pretension as long as there seemed hope of annoying others.
“I sure am sorry to interrupt you-all from waitin’ on my missus, folks,” finally said Mr. Alexander, “but I got to get to bed, ‘cause we’re goin’ to make an early start.”
This made his wife forget her recent indisposition. She sat up.
“Ebeneezer! I told you that I could not get ready to start away from here so early as you plan. I have to do necessary shopping for myself and Dodo,” exclaimed she.
“I will pass up the shopping, Ma, because I really prefer going on with the rest of the party,” said Dodo, quickly.
“Children must be seen not——” Mrs. Alexander began, but she suddenly remembered her daughter’s threat to expose her true age, and she sighed aloud.