"
"Then only Uncle Aldis and Aunt Marion and Bess and I have got to go
home?" she replied.
"That's all," said Phil, cheerfully.
"Well, I think you might be sorry, or pretend that you are, anyway, if
only for look's sake," tartly rejoined Lelia, with another wandering
glance at the sea.
"Oh, I am sorry!" said Phil, with honest quickness; "but still I'd
rather stay here than go back to Oakdale, where nobody likes me, and I'd
never amount to a hill of beans."
"But _I_ liked you when you were at Oakdale," gravely reminded Lelia.
And the tone in which she said it smote Phil to the heart.
"So did I," calmly avowed Bess. "I did really, Phil."
"No, you didn't!" sharply contradicted Lelia. "You never liked anybody
but yourself and your dear, lovely Rosy!"
"I say I did!" stoutly declared Bess. "I liked Phil before I was born."
And she nodded her little head complacently, as if this last were a
clincher that no one--not even Lelia--could have the hardihood to doubt.
Phil burst out laughing, and Lelia flung down the book she was reading,
or trying lo read, when Bess began her marvelous "snake-story," and
stared at her cousin in speechless disgust.
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