Page:Georgie by Dorothea Deakin, 1906.djvu/149

"Georgie" you know if Phillida's come back to-day?"

Georgia's Goddess Girl had been visiting in the Midlands, and at last, I believe, Georgie and she were formally engaged.

"Yes," Drusilla answered him. "She came back this morning in time for lunch. We are to dine at the Manor House to-night, Martin and I." Georgie's look of frank horror was refreshing.

"Not a dinner-party?" he asked aghast.

"Yes," said I, pleasantly. "There is to be rather a large dinner-party, I believe."

Without another word Georgie picked up his travelling companion and departed.

Drusilla looked at me and laughed: she hugged Matthew Arnold and laughed again.

"What a boy!" she cried. "Oh, Martin, what a boy! To say my son will never be a sportsman! What will his mother say to him when she sees that cross little boy? And Phillida—what will she say?" 133