Page:Ballinger Price--The Happy Venture.djvu/142

126 and not let us have you back till we'd paid him all the money we have in the world. If I hadn't come along just as that particular moment, that's what would have happened.

Kirk sniffed, but Ken went on relentlessly:

"What were you doing outside the gate, anyway? You're not allowed there. I don't like your going to the Maestro's, even, but at least it's a safe path. There are automobiles on Winterbottom Road, and they suppose that you can see 'em and get out of their way. I'm afraid we'll have to say that you can't leave the house without Phil or me."

Ken was over-wrought, and forgot that his brother probably was, also. Kirk wept passionately at last, and Ken, who could never bear to see his tears, crouched penitent in the gloom of the road, to dry his eyes and murmur tender apologies. At the gate of the farm, Ken paused suddenly, and then said:

"Let's not say anything about all this to Phil; she'd just be worried and upset. What do you say?"

"Don't let's," Kirk agreed. They shook hands solemnly, and then turned to the lighted windows of Applegate Farm.