"It ought to," replied his mother sarcastically, "if a person must spend every day for three months sitting with his eyes glued on those mites watching every breath they draw."
"It isn't just days, Mother; I'd have to be there nights as well."
"What!"
"That's what Jerry told me. I'd have to sleep on the place. Mr. Crowninshield wants some one there all the time."
"But Walter——!" Mrs. King broke off in dismay.
"I know that would mean leaving you alone now that Bob has a regular position at the Seaver Bay Wireless station. Still, why should you mind? I have always been gone all day, anyhow; and at night I sleep so soundly that you yourself have often said burglars might carry away the bed from under me and I not know it."
"You are not much protection, that's a fact," confessed Mrs. King. "Fortunately, though, I am not a timid person. It is not that I am afraid to stay here alone. My chief objection is that it seems foolish to run a great house like this simply for myself."
"Couldn't you get some one to come and keep you company?"
"Who, I should like to know?"
"Why—why—well, I haven't thought about it. Of course there's Aunt Marcia King."