He looked at her sharply. “But I do think of you. Why should you say that?”
“Oh, I don’t know ... just in case anything happened to me. That’s why I’d like to call him Philip.”
“No ... no ... any other name.”
He took up his hat. “What are you going to do with the twins on Sundays and choir practice nights?”
“I don’t know. I’d thought of asking Mabelle to stay with them ... but she lives such a long way off. Maybe I’d just better give it up.”
“No, you mustn’t do that. I’ll come and stay with them. I’d like to.”
“You don’t mind my leading the choir, Philip?”
“No, of course not.”
“Because I want you to be pleased. I want it to be a new start now, here in this new house.”
He didn’t answer, and after an awkward pause, she said, “I wouldn’t go at all, but I think Reverend Castor needs me. He’s got so many worries. Yesterday when I was talking to him, he began all at once to cry ... not out loud, but the tears just came into his eyes. His wife’s an awful woman. He’s been telling me about her. And now that Mrs. Timpkins has moved away, there’s no one to take the choir who knows anything about music.”