Later, over his solitary dinner, he suddenly
decided to run up to Winton the next day.
He would not wire them, he would rather like
to take Phil by surprise.
So he had arrived at the parsonage,
driving up in Jed's solitary hack, and much plied
with information, general and personal, on the
way, just as the minister and his wife reached
home from the manor.
"And, oh, my! Doesn't father look
tickled to death!" Patience declared, coming
in to her sisters' room that night, ostensibly
to have an obstinate knot untied, but inwardly
determined to make a third at the usual
bedtime talk for that once, at least. It wasn't
often they all came up together.
"He looks mighty glad," Pauline said.
"And isn't it funny, bearing him called
Phil?" Patience curled herself up in the
cozy corner. "I never've thought of father
as Phil."
Hilary paused in the braiding of her long
hair. "I'm glad we've got to know him--Uncle
Paul, I mean--through his letters, and
all the lovely things he's done for us; else, I
think I'd have been very much afraid of him."
"So am I," Pauline assented. "I see now
what Mr. Oram meant--he doesn't look as if
he believed much in fairy stories.
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