how much of my time you'd need if you did come 'whenever you want to'; and of course you wouldn't dare make any answer to that question except one. Wouldn't you let me have Thursdays out?"
"No, no," he protested. "I want to know. Will you let me come pretty often?"
"Lean toward me a little," Alice said. "I want you to understand." And as he obediently bent his head near hers, she inclined toward him as if to whisper; then, in a half-shout, she cried,
"Yes!"
He clapped his hands. "By George!" he said, "What a girl you are!"
"Why?"
"Well, for the first reason, because you have such gaieties as that one. I should think your father would actually like being ill, just to be in the house with you all the time."
"You mean by that," Alice inquired, "I keep my family cheerful with my amusing little ways?"
"Yes. Don't you?"
"There were only boys in your family, weren't there, Mr. Russell?"
"I was an only child, unfortunately."
"Yes," she said. "I see you hadn't any sisters."
