"I might have worse things. You've no idea, Lou, how nice
it all is. The mother, Lady Plowden--why she made me
feel as if I was at the very least a nephew of hers.
And so simple and natural! She smiled at me, and listened
to me, and said friendly things to me--why, just as anybody
might have done. You'll just love her, when you know her."
Louisa laughed in his face. "Don't be a fool, Joel,"
she adjured him, with a flash of scornful mirth.
He mingled a certain frowning impatience with the buoyancy
of his smile. "Why, of course, you'll know her,"
he protested. "What nonsense you're thinking of! Do
you suppose I'm going to allow you to mess about here
with second-hand almanacs, and a sign in your window
of 'threepence in the shilling discount for cash,'
while I'm a millionaire? It's too foolish, Lou. You annoy
me by supposing such a thing!"
"There's no good talking about it at all," she observed,
after a little pause. "It hasn't come off yet,
for one thing. And as I said the other night, if you want
to do things for the children, that's another matter.
They're of an age when they can learn whatever anybody
chooses to teach them."
"Where are they now?" he asked. Upon the instant another
plan began to unfold itself in the background of his mind.
"They're both at Cheltenham, though they're at
different places, of course.
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