Well, she has accepted you and your entire household, even down to Dong
Ling, on the same basis."
"Well, I'm sure I'm glad," asserted the man with genial warmth. "It's
good for us to have her here. It's good for the boys. She's already
livened Cyril up and toned Bertram down. I may as well confess, Aunt
Hannah, that I've been more than a little disturbed about Bertram of
late. I don't like that Bob Seaver that he is so fond of; and some other
fellows, too, that have been coming here altogether too much during
the last year. Bertram says they're only a little 'Bohemian' in their
tastes. And to me that's the worst of it, for Bertram himself is quite
too much inclined that way."
"Exactly, William. And that only goes to prove what I said before.
Bertram is not a spinster aunt, and neither are any of the rest of you.
But Billy takes you that way."
"Takes us that way--as spinster aunts!"
"Yes. She makes herself as free in this house as she was in her Aunt
Ella's at Hampden Falls. She flies up to Cyril's rooms half a dozen
times a day with some question about her lessons; and I don't know how
long she'd sit at his feet and adoringly listen to his playing if he
didn't sometimes get out of patience and tell her to go and practise
herself. She makes nothing of tripping into Bertram's studio at all
hours of the day; and he's sketched her head at every conceivable
angle--which certainly doesn't tend to make Billy modest or retiring.
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