“However, this doesn’t interest Eileen a bit.”
“Oh, yes it does!” she put in quickly.
“Well,––it is business, and we fellows oughtn’t to talk shop in a lady’s company.
“Phil,––you won’t rob me of my little girl for a while yet? I require her badly when the House is sitting at Victoria. I’d like to have her with me next session at any rate.”
“We had thought of eighteen months from now, daddy dear. Will that do?” inquired Eileen.
The old man’s eyes brightened up and his ruddy cheeks curved in a smile.
“That will be just fine! I’ll have eighteen months of you in which to get used to doing without you. And, who knows, maybe that is all the time I shall want.”
“Now, daddy, don’t say that. Besides, you won’t be losing me; you’ll just be finding Phil.”
John Royce Pederstone put one arm on Phil’s shoulder and the other round his daughter’s slight waist, as he turned with them toward the house.
“Well, we’ll have dinner and a glass of wine over it, anyway.”