Page:Georgie by Dorothea Deakin, 1906.djvu/155

"Georgie" and excited, and his end of the table became a very noisy one. There was something curiously penetrating about the voice of his betrothed, and something boisterous and infectious about Georgie's laughter.

"He seems a very cheerful kind of boy," a fresh little voice at my side volunteered.

I turned to my neighbor and laughed.

"Yes," I said, "cheerful and most absurd. Georgie's letting himself go a bit to-night."

"He has been telling me about his poor little Welsh boy."

I suppose I looked my surprise, for she hastily went on:

"Oh, I've known Georgie quite a long time; ever since last winter, and I have four brothers of my own. Naturally I have had a great deal of experience with boys, you see."

I looked at her, and laughed. She was apparently just out of the schoolroom herself and her eldest brother was about fifteen. I hardly thought she had had to 139