Page:The Other House (London, William Heinemann, 1896), Volume 1.djvu/85

Rh but she looked at him as if to convey that the extreme high spirits it betrayed were perhaps just a trifle mistimed. "That's what I recommended him," she dropped, "to say to Julia."

"Why, I should hope so!" Presently, as if a little struck, Dennis continued: "Doesn't he want to?"

"Absolutely. They're all in all to each other. But he's naturally much upset and bewildered."

"And he came to you for advice?"

"Oh, he comes to me," Rose said, "as he might come to talk of her with the mother that, poor darling, it's her misfortune never to have known."

The young man's vivacity again played up. "He treats you, you mean, as his mother-in-law?"

"Very much. But I'm thoroughly nice to him. People can do anything to me who are nice to Julia."

Dennis was silent a moment; he had slipped his letter out of its cover. "Well, I hope they're grateful to you for such devotion."

"Grateful to me, Dennis? They quite adore me." Then as if to remind him of something it