You've got the old man solid, Evelyn. I couldn't face a Christmas
without you."
Evelyn kissed him again without speaking.
"I will apologize to your man, Evelyn," the old man said, after a
pause. "I haven't treated the boy right. I hope he won't hold it
against me."
"Not a bit of it," declared Evelyn. "You don't know Fred--that's all."
"Oh, how did you get here, Evelyn? Do you live near here? I have been
so glad to see you I forgot to ask."
"Mr. Brown brought me over," said Evelyn, unblushingly. "He came over
early this morning to tell me you were here. Wasn't it nice of him?"
"He's a dandy fellow, this young Brown," said the old man, and then
stopped abruptly.
Evelyn's eyes were sparkling with suppressed laughter.
"But where is Fred?" her father asked, with an effort, and Evelyn
watched him girding himself for a painful duty.
"I'll call him," she said, sweetly.
The old man's grey eyes grew dark with excitement and surprise as his
friend Brown came into the room and stood beside Evelyn and quite
brazenly put his left arm around her waist. His face was a study in
emotions as his quick brain grasped the situation. With a prolonged
whistle he dropped back on the pillow, and pulling the counterpane over
his face he shook with laughter.
"The joke is all on me," he cried. "I have been three or four different
kinds of a fool."
Then he emerged from the bed-clothes and, sitting up, grasped Fred's
outstretched hand.
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