Louis himself took up his position on the
hearth-rug, opposite Rosamond.
Aunt Ruth answered her brother energetically: "None happier, Calvin,
I'll warrant, and few half as happy. I can't help wishing those two
people Rufus and I've been visiting could look in here just now."
"Why make them envious?" suggested Louis, who loved to hear his Aunt
Ruth's crisp speeches.
"The question is--would they be envious?" This came from Stephen, whose
absorption in his book evidently admitted of penetration from the
outside.
"Why, of course they would!" declared Aunt Ruth. "You should have seen
the way they had me pour the coffee and tea, all the while I was there.
That young man Richard was always getting me to pour something--said he
liked to see me do it. And he was always sending a servant off and doing
things for me himself. If I'd been a young girl he couldn't have hovered
round any more devotedly."
A general laugh greeted this, for Aunt Ruth's expression of face as she
told it was provocative.
"We can readily believe that, Ruth," declared Judge Gray, and his
brother Robert nodded. The low-voiced talk between Mr.
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