After
two or three days he even began to take command of the younger ones, and
Janet was secretly amused to see how he shamed both Rosamund and Dolly
into doing something like their full share of the housework.
In relation to the two younger girls, his attitude was far more that
of a good-natured, rather cynical, elder brother than was his attitude
to Betty. Into her special department, the kitchen, he seldom intruded,
though when he did so it was to real purpose. Thus, Dolly's twentieth
birthday was made by him the excuse for ordering from a famous London
caterer a hamper containing enough cold and half-cooked food to keep them
junketing for two or three days. Janet was rather puzzled to note that
Betty, alone of them all, seemed to look askance at the way Radmore spent
his substance in showering fairy-godfather-like gifts on the inmates of
Old Place.
The happiest of them all was Timmy. Most men would have been bored by
having so much of a child's company, but Radmore was touched and
flattered by the boy's devotion, and that though there was a side of his
godson which puzzled and disturbed him. Now and again Timmy would say
something which made Radmore wonder for a moment if he had heard the
words aright, but he followed the example silently set him by all the
others of taking no notice of Timmy's claim both to see and foresee more
than is vouchsafed to the ordinary mortal.
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