Dash himself, who was lying quietly in Philip’s arms, now and then licking the boy’s hand, looked up so reproachfully at Aunt Delia as she leaned over the bed that her kind heart was really touched.
“Good doggie,” she said kindly, patting his shaggy head, “don’t you suppose I mind being left behind too? And don’t you think that I shall miss our Philip when he is gone? You and I must learn to be good friends, and then we can comfort each other, you know.”
And Dash, who really seemed to understand everything that was said to him, showed his appreciation of Mrs. Seldon’s sympathy by leaving Philip to come and poke his little black nose affectionately into her face, and when she gave a little scream of surprise and began to wipe her cheek where the wet nose had touched it, Philip was so much amused that he laughed merrily; and when Aunt Delia came into the room again half an hour later, he was sound asleep, with Dash curled up in a little yellow ball beside him.
Chapter XIV
Off for Italy
AND then at last the day came when Philip was to start on his travels, and everybody was trying so hard to bear up and be cheerful that there was quite an air of false gayety about the household. Only one member of the family seemed to be indifferent about Philip’s departure, and this was his cousin Marion, who had returned the week before from her visit to Scotland, where she had been flattered and made so much of for her beauty and accomplishments that her silly head was quite turned. She was deeply chagrined on her return to find that Philip, instead of herself, was the central[191] figure in the family circle. She had the greatest admiration for Lord Ashden, and felt a respect for his rank and title which amounted almost to veneration. She was secretly quite enraged that he should have selected this boy, whose parentage on one side was, to say the least, decidedly obscure, and should have paid him so much attention.
“I wonder what Lord Ashden can be thinking of,” she said, with flashing eyes, to her younger sisters, who were disposed, on her first return home, to regard her with a kind of admiring awe. “I suppose Philip asked Lord Ashden to take him abroad with him, and of course he is far too good-natured to refuse.”
“Oh, no, indeed,” the truthful Rose was obliged to reply. “He did not, indeed, Marion; for when Aunt Delia told him of Lord Ashden’s invitation, he was as much surprised as we were.”
“Fiddlesticks!” said Marion, tossing her head; “you all seem to think that Philip is as innocent as a lamb. He may be as stupid as one, that I will grant you,” and Marion laughed unpleasantly at her own witticism. Rose echoed the laugh, although rather faintly, and she was glad that Lillie had been called from the room, and so had not heard Marion’s ill-natured remark.