find his patient up and about, and Herbert, the
son, even more pleased to find her at all, I judge. Young Bayliss was
evidently very favorably impressed with his new neighbor. He was a big,
healthy, broad-shouldered fellow, a grown-up boy, whose laugh was a
pleasure to hear, and who possessed the faculty, envied by me, the
quahaug, of chatting entertainingly on all subjects from tennis and
the new American dances to Lloyd-George and old-age pensions. Frances
declared a strong aversion to the dances, principally because they were
American, I suspected.
Doctor Bayliss, the old gentleman, then turned to me.
"What is the American opinion of the Liberal measures?" he asked.
"I should say," I answered, "that, so far as they are understood in
America, opinion concerning them is divided, much as it is here."
"Really! But you haven't the Liberal and Conservative parties as we
have, you know."
"We have liberals and conservatives, however, although our political
parties are not so named."
"We call 'em Republicans and Democrats," explained Hephzy. "Hosy is a
Republican," she added, proudly.
"I am not certain what I am," I observed. "I have voted a split ticket
of late."
Young Bayliss asked a question.
"Are you a--what is it--Republican, Miss Morley?" he inquired.
Miss Morley's eyes dropped disdainfully.
"I am neither," she said. "My father was a Conservative, of course."
"Oh, I say! That's odd, isn't it. Your uncle here is--"
"Uncle Hosea, you mean?" sweetly. "Oh, Uncle Hosea is an American. I am
English."
She did not add "Thank heaven," but she might as well. "Uncle Hosea"
shuddered at the name. Young Bayliss grinned behind his blonde mustache.
When he left, in company with his father, Hephzy invited him to "run in
any time."
"We're next-door neighbors," she said, "so we mustn't be formal."
I was fairly certain that the invitation was superfluous. If I knew
human nature at all I knew that Bayliss, Junior, did not intend to let
formality stand in the way of frequent calls at the rectory.
My intuition was correct. The following afternoon he called again.
So did Mr. Judson. Both calls were casual, of course. So was Mr.
Worcester's that evening. He came to bring the "favorite songs" and was
much surprised to find Miss Morley in the drawing-room. He said so.
Hephzy and I knew little of our relative's history. She had volunteered
no particulars other than those given on the occasion of our first
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