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"Their rapture at getting the children to themselves is almost indecent. It's all very well to have such attractive infants, but I sometimes look sadly back to the days when Lily-Anna loved me for myself alone. And now about you." "Me?" said Joy in surprise. She had not supposed there was any question about her. "You," answered Phyllis decisively.
Nobody was astir yet but Lily-Anna, and Viola, who was giving the early-waking Angela her breakfast in an informal way in the corner of the kitchen. "Could I have a cup of coffee in a little while now, Lily-Anna?" she asked the cook, who was making beaten biscuit in an echoing fashion that would have penetrated any but the thick hundred-year-old walls of the kitchen.
"Why, Miss Joy you goin' off on a ride with Dr. Johnny this early?" inquired Lily-Anna, thinking the natural thing. "Course you can. I'll make it right now. An' I'll tell Mis' Harrington." Joy had forgotten Phyllis in her wild desire for flight. But she remembered now. She would have to call Phyllis and tell her. Indeed, she would rather tell her herself than have Gail know.
And it was long past dinner-time, though every one but Lily-Anna, to whom the happy news had somehow filtered, had forgotten it. "I've always wanted to hold you in my arms, this way," said Allan late that evening, as they stood in the rose-garden again; "but I thought I never would.... Phyllis, did you ever want me to?"
Joy sped back to the house, and got the things from Lily-Anna, who unlocked and found with quick, capable hands, though she was evidently trying not to cry as she did it. "Jus' a natural-born angel," she said. "Here, hurry back, Miss Joy. Yas, that kind's too good to live. I might a' knowed it long ago. There's everything, child. Now go on!"
"For tea, ma'am?" inquired Wallis, beaming. "I should think so, ma'am. I'll ask, anyhow." Phyllis had not thought of tea one does not stop for such leisurely amenities in a busy public library but she saw the beauty of the idea, and saw to it that the tea was there. Lily-Anna was a jewel.
"Yas'm," said the rich and comfortable voice of Lily-Anna, the cook, from the dining-room door; "you sholy is pretty. Yas'm a lady wants to stay pretty when she's married. Yo' don' look much mo'n a bride, ma'am, an' dat's a fac'. Does you want yo' dinnehs brought into de sittin'-room regular till de gem'man gits well?"
She rang for Lily-Anna, who appeared, smiling and comfortable as ever. "Mr. Harrington and I are going off for some days perhaps longer, Lily-Anna," Phyllis explained. "I shall have to leave the children with you and Viola. Mrs. De Guenther is very ill." Lily-Anna seemed used to this sort of thing happening, and said she could manage perfectly well.
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