Dr. Norton and his wife were delighted to see him, and the girls presently forgot their first shyness in the excitement of asking and answering questions. It was a very merry party which gathered around the supper-table, and Philip was touched to see that Mrs. Norton had planned to have all the dainties of which she remembered Philip to have been particularly fond in the old days at Lowdown. Rose and Lillie fluttered about the room, too happy to sit down quietly with the others, and they kept heaping delicacies on Philip’s plate until he was obliged to assure them laughingly that he did not possess the appetite and digestion of an ostrich, and then suddenly he stopped, with a buttered crumpet half way to his mouth, to ask where Marion was.
Miss Acton explained that she had gone with friends to spend a few days at a country house; she would be back very shortly though, and perhaps might not have gone had she known that Lord Ashden and her cousin were coming so soon.
That supposition was evidently added to soothe a little disappointment that was visible in Aunt Delia’s face. As for Philip, he felt almost relieved that he was not to meet Marion immediately. His old admiration for her beauty had not faded, but equally fresh was his vivid remembrance of her scorn of the little cousin she used to consider a disgrace to the family.
He was very happy for the next few days, giving himself up to the enjoyment of being carried about to all sorts of places by the twins and Miss Acton.
“How nice it is to have a cousin with us!” said Rose; “mamma won’t let us go anywhere alone with Miss Acton since we have grown so big, but with you for a protector we can have no end of larks.”
“Cousin Philip may not fancy going everywhere with a B. B. party,” said Lillie, rather mischievously.
“I have no idea,” said Philip, “what a B. B. party is, but I shall be only too happy to go anywhere with you,” and he glanced affectionately at Miss Acton as if to include her.
“B. B. is short for bread-and-butter party,” explained Rose; “that’s what papa calls Miss Acton and Lillie and me when we do get leave to go off to the park, or the Zoo, or anything, because we take our lunch with us so as not to shock the proprieties by going into any of those lovely, darling restaurants for a bite.”