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Before Pennie had time to answer they had arrived at the Wilderness, and were now joined by Nancy and the two boys, who came shyly forward to shake hands. "These are our gardens," said Pennie, doing the honours of the Wilderness; "that's mine, and that's Dickie's, and the well belongs to the others. They dug it themselves."
But no one stands on ceremony on the river or in it either," she laughed to herself as she swam away with swift, even strokes. "I shouldn't have asked him in that way," she explained to her brother afterwards, "if he hadn't been rather shy. One must be nice to foreigners, and dear Dickie's society undiluted would bore me to extinction."
Too much moonshine inside of Dickie. I hope" he leaned toward her, and Sheila, the child, could not help but be flattered by his deference "I hope you're not thinking that Dickie's unfortunate habit is my fault. I'm his father and I own that saloon. But, all the same, it's not my fault nor The Aura's fault either. I never did spoil Dickie. And I'm a sober man myself.
On the mantel in Dickie's room, propped against a tobacco jar, was a photograph of a girl with fluffy hair and pouting lips. Observing that Dickie wrapped the picture carefully in a sweater before tucking it away in his trunk, I asked: "Who is that, Dickie?" "Met her at the Junior hop," said Dickie. "She's a queen, all right." "Indeed!" Then I added, anxiously: "And what of Rosie?" "Rosie?"
Chifney, her cheeks pink, her manner slightly fluttered, as were her lilac cap strings, presided over the silver tea and coffee service, admonished the staid and bulky tom-cat who, jumping on the arm of Dickie's chair, extended a scooping tentative paw towards his plate, and issued gentle though peremptory orders to her husband regarding the material needs of her guest. To Mrs.
Dickie's poems! She was afraid to read them. She could not help but think of his life at Millings, of that sordid hotel lobby ... Newspaper stories yes that was imaginable. But poetry? Sheila had been brought up on verse. There was hardly a beautiful line that had not sung itself into the fabric of her brain.
Even the children, who had pushed and crowded when they first entered the front hall of the house even they were surprisingly quiet, when they were asleep. Perhaps the winter was longer than usual; or perhaps Dickie Deer Mouse ate too freely of his hidden store of good things. At any rate, Dickie's hoard slowly grew smaller and smaller.
The moment she arrived, full of her eager little schemes and fancies, with all sorts of important news from Easney, Dickie's last funny saying, how far baby could crawl, and what the boys had been doing, the quiet old house seemed to brighten up and grow young again.
"I thought I'd make the ac-acquaintance of the young lady," he began doubtfully. "I saw her admiring at the stars and I " "Oh, you did!" snarled Hudson. "All right. Now go and make acquaintance with the bottom step." He thrust a long, hard hand at Dickie's chest, and the boy fell backward, clattering ruefully down the steps with a rattle of thin knees and elbows.
Christina Shine had called about her new dress for the Sunday School anniversary, and the weakest and most indulgent of mothers could not have wished for a more sympathetic confidant than big Miss Chris, who saved all her tears for other people's troubles. 'You know, dear, murmured Mrs. Haddon. 'I can't change Dickie's nature.
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