“You don’t seem to be very sociably inclined,” said Mr. Potter. “From the distance between you I should think you two chicks had been quarrelling. Come, make it up.”
“Not at all,” cried Frances, indignantly. “I never lose my temper; except when you are here.”
“Is that the reason you haven’t asked me to sit down?” asked Potter, smiling.
“Of course you are to sit down, if you want,” exclaimed Frances. “Here.” And she moved the four inches towards her end of the sofa that had not been occupied under the previous arrangement.
Mr. Potter seated himself leisurely in Freddy’s old place, and arranged one of the cushions to fit the small of his back. “I came to say good-bye to your mother,” he explained, “and as I’m too busy to stop in to-morrow, I decided to wait. You youngsters needn’t think it necessary to sit up to entertain me. Won’t Freddy’s mother be sending his nurse for him if he stays much later?”
“I’m so glad you are going to Europe,” remarked Frances. “I hope you’ll stay a long while.”
Mr. Potter put his glasses on again and looked at Frances calmly. “Hello!” he said mentally, “the kitten’s learning how to hiss.” Aloud he announced: “I shall only be gone for a month or two,—just the voyage and a change.”
“What a pity!” responded Frances, bitingly.
“I thought you’d miss me,” replied Mr. Potter, genially.
Frances gave an uneasy movement on the sofa, a cross between an angry shake of the shoulders and a bounce.