"You say he is a friend of Roscoe's?" Bibbs asked.

"Oh, he's a friend of the whole family," she returned, with a
petulance which she made an effort to disguise. "Roscoe and he got
acquainted somewhere, and they take him to the theater about every
other night. Sibyl has him to lunch, too, and keeps--" She broke
off with an angry little jerk of the head. "We can see the New House
from the second corner ahead. Roscoe has built straight across the
street from us, you know. Honestly, Sibyl makes me think of a snake,
sometimes--the way she pulls the wool over people's eyes! She honeys
up to papa and gets anything in the world she wants out of him, and
then makes fun of him behind his back--yes, and to his face, but HE
can't see it! She got him to give her a twelve-thousand-dollar porch
for their house after it was--"

"Good heavens!" said Bibbs, staring ahead as they reached the corner
and the car swung to the right, following a bend in the street.
"Is that the New House?"

"Yes. What do you think of it?"

"Well," he drawled, "I'm pretty sure the sanitarium's about half a
size bigger; I can't be certain till I measure."

And a moment later, as they entered the driveway, he added, seriously:
"But it's beautiful!"



CHAPTER IV