“Yes they do, too. But just now I don’t want him either fighting or in legislature. I want him right along with us at Loringwood. If he isn’t there to talk to Mr. Loring it won’t be possible to have a word alone with Gertrude all the time we stay. How he does depend on her, and what an awful time she must have had all alone with him in Paris while he was at that hospital, or whatever it was.”
“Not many girls so faithful as Gertrude Loring,” agreed Aunt Sajane. “Not that he has ever shown much affection for her, either, considering she is his own brother’s child. But she certainly has shown a Christian sense of duty towards him. Well, you see, they are the only ones left of the family. It’s natural, I suppose.”
“I would think it natural to run away and leave him, like Aleck and Scip did.”
Aunt Sajane cast a warning glance towards the two oarsmen.
“Well, I would,” insisted the girl. “I wonder no more of them ran away when they thought he was coming home. How he must have raved! I shouldn’t wonder if it prostrated him again. You know old Doctor Allison said it was just a fit of temper caused––”
“Yes, yes, honey; but you know we are to sleep under his roof tonight.”
“I’ll sleep under Gertrude’s half of it,” laughed the girl. “It’s no use reminding me of my bad manners, Aunt Sajane. But as long as I can remember anyone, I’ve had two men in my mind. One always grunted at me and told me to take my doll somewhere else or be quiet. That was Kenneth’s guardian, Matthew Loring. The other man always had sugar kisses in his pocket for me and gave me my first dog and my only pony. That was Judge Clarkson. You see if my judge had not been so lovely the other would not have seemed so forbidding. It was the contrast did it. I wonder––I wonder if he ever had a sweetheart?”
“Gideon Clarkson? Lots of them,” said his sister, promptly.
“I meant Mr. Loring.”