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 no he had any appreciation of the humor of the device.

“It’s a triumph,” Browning told his wife.

“It’ll tickle Dave half to death when he hears of it.”

“If he gets well enough to hear,” said Mary, who sometimes despaired of Wilkins’s recovery. “I do wish we could get Angus to stay here, or even come to meals once in a while.”

“I’ll make him come to dinner Sunday. We mustn’t try to force him. Give him his head. Friends have to grow on Angus slowly—and he’s not having the loveliest imaginable time just now…. Sometimes I could tear this town up by the roots and throw it in the river.”

“Um…. I wonder how Lydia will react to him,” said Mary dubiously. “She’s hard to understand at times—and she’s so uppity about family and pedigrees and such things. I hope she doesn’t turn up her nose at him.”

“If she does,” said Craig shortly, “I’ll turn it down again for her…. But for Heaven’s sake, don’t mention him to her, or warn her how to treat him…. You know Lydia:—tell her not to put pot-black on her nose, and she’d make up like the end man in a minstrel show just to show her independence.”

Mary lifted her shoulders and sighed. Sometimes Lydia was a trial to her. There was no