"How beautifully they take it!" marveled Joy when the servants had gone again, full of shining assurances that all would be well.
"You may well say so!" said Phyllis, lifting her eyebrows. "Their rapture at getting the children to themselves is almost indecent. It's all very well to have such attractive infants, but I sometimes look sadly back to the days when Lily-Anna loved me for myself alone. And now about you."
"Me?" said Joy in surprise. She had not supposed there was any question about her.
"You," answered Phyllis decisively. "Here is where I am given a chance of escape from making a lifelong enemy of your future mother-in-law." She crossed to the telephone as she spoke, and got Mrs. Hewitt's number. "This is Phyllis Harrington," Joy heard her say. "I called up to say that I am yielding in our struggle for Joy's person. Allan and I have to go away this afternoon. We should love to have her stay here and chaperone Philip and Angela, but it seems a waste. Would you like to have her?"
Sounds of fervent acceptance were evidently pouring over the wire, for Phyllis smiled as she listened.
"She not only wants you," she transmitted to Joy, "but she says that she'll take no chances on our changing our minds, and is coming for you in an hour, whether we go or not. She says to tell you that she's taking you shopping first.... You know, we're to have her back when we return," she continued firmly to the telephone. "We saw her first."
She hung up the receiver and swept Joy off upstairs with her while she packed.
"You know, we may never get you again," she warned. "I'm taking a fearful chance in letting you escape this way. You have to come back, remember, my child."
"Indeed I will come back," Joy promised fervently.
It seemed so strange that all these people should so completely have made her one of themselves, even to the point of wanting to keep her in their homes.