"Lucy, you saw what your father and I were doing last night?"
"Yes."
"What did you think—what do you now think of us?"
"Again, Chester, I don't object to you and father spooning a bit. In fact, I think that's rather nice."
Chester laughed a little now, which loosened the tension considerably; but he returned to the attack:
"Lucy, what would you think if your father had a son who had been lost when a baby, and that now he should return to him as a grown man?"
"Well, I would think that would be jolly, as the English say."
"And that his son's name was Chester Lawrence?" he continued as if there had been no interruption.
Now the cog in Lucy's mental make-up caught firmly into the machinery that had been buzzing about her for some time.
"Are you my brother?" she asked.