'Never fear, Fee,' cried Edgar, with his hand on his brother's shoulder; 'if one man got on in life, another may. If one only was grown up, and had the start----' and his blue eyes sparkled.
'I did not know Care's clutch had been so tight,' sighed Mr. Underwood, half to himself, half to his wife. 'It is not safe, my gentle Enid, to try such experiments. Eh!' rousing himself, 'what's that? Have the mob there a right to any sentiments?'
'Only,' cried Clement, shouting with laughter, 'Lance thought you were wanted to hold a high stool for Jack Ketch.'
'For a green goose!' shouted Lance, indignantly.
'Oh!' cried Robina, in the tone of one who had made a scientific discovery, 'did the goose have a high stool to lay the golden eggs?'
'A most pertinent question, Bobbie, and much more reasonable than mine,' said Mr. Underwood; while his colleague gravely answered, 'Yes, Bobbie, golden eggs are almost always laid by geese on high stools.'
'I've got a picture of one! It has got a long neck and long legs,' quoth Bobbie.
'It is only a flamingo, you little goose yourself,' cried Clement.
'Here is the golden egg of the present,' said Mr. Underwood, replenishing the boy's plate with that delicious pie. 'What's that beverage, Wilmet? Any horrible brew of your own?'
'The universal hamper. It is like the fairy gifts that produced unlimited eatables. I dreaded cowslip wine or periwinkle broth.'
'No, no, Papa,' sighed Alda, 'we only once made cowslip tea at Vale Leston.'
'Vale Leston is prohibited for the day.--Master Felix Chester Underwood, your good health; and the same to the new Underwood of Centry Underwood.'
'If either party desires the gratification, no doubt it will come about.'
'Certainly not before he comes. Mother, some of the wonderful bottle--ay, you covetous miser of a woman, or I'll make a libation of it all. Audley, it must have wrung your father's butler's heart to have thrown away this port on a pic-nic. What did you tell him to delude him?'
'Only what was true--that I was to meet a gentleman who was a judge of the article.'
'For shame!' he answered, laughing. 'What right had you to know that I knew the taste of Cape from Roriz?'
But his evident enjoyment of the 'good creature' was no small pleasure to the provider, though it was almost choking to meet the glistening glance of Mrs. Underwood's grateful eyes, knowing, as she did, that there were three more such bottles in the straw at the bottom of the hamper. And when baby Angela had clasped her fat hands, and, as 'youngest at the board,' 'inclined the head and pronounced the solemn word,' her father added, '_Gratias Deo_, and _Grazie a lei_. We must renew our childhood's training, dear Mary--make our bow and curtesy, and say "Thank you for our good dinner."'