"How very nice," said Kathleen courteously.
Mrs. Fabian, always on the sensitive lookout where her young relative was concerned, thought she detected a perfunctory note.
"Yes, I think you did mention it before Commencement."
"He says," said Mrs. Fabian, "that you have never talked to him about the island."
"But think," returned Kathleen, "how seldom I have talked with him."
"Yes," returned her mother resignedly, "and how full your head is of other matters. You were very nice to Phil on Christmas night, here. I wasn't sure but that you would invite him yourself."
"No reason, if you don't see any. Phil was very polite to you at your graduation. Those flowers were exquisite."
"Yes." The girl smiled. "They would have worried me, but that I know flowers are cheaper in June."
"I don't think that's a very nice thing to say," observed Mrs. Fabian.
"I meant it very nicely," returned Kathleen mildly.
"Well, perhaps it isn't so strange that you have not talked the island to him, since you have been engrossed in other things; but I have had all the trouble in the world to induce him to go; and if you had roused his enthusiasm a little it would have been easier."
"Why have you urged him?" asked the girl.
Her mother regarded her for a pause, in exasperated silence. "Are you aware," she returned at last, "that it is 87 in the shade this morning? Are you aware that these rooms, where the draught constantly changes the air, are slightly different from that studio, baking under a stable roof and hemmed in by high buildings?"
"Are you aware," went on Mrs. Fabian sonorously, "that one who has always previously had a home might find a brief change from cheap restaurants invigorating in hot weather?"
"I didn't know," said Kathleen. "I thought perhaps he was too busy to notice. He"--she hesitated, but imperceptibly to Mrs. Fabian,--"he has not called here since I returned."
"That's just it," flashed Phil's defender. "He never spares himself. He thinks of nothing but work. Now, I have never forced any of my relatives on the Fabians," with heightened color, "but your father likes Phil. He was delighted to have me ask him. He has charged me to hold on to the boy until he can join us."
"I hope he can stay," put in Kathleen politely.