Part 15 (2/2)
David sighed. ”I seem to visit a good deal; I'd like to belong somewhere.”
”Oh, you will, one of these days,” Dr. Lavendar a.s.sured him.
”I'd like to belong to you,” David said thoughtfully.
Dr. Lavendar beamed, and looked proudly at Mrs. Richie.
”Because,” David explained, ”I love Goliath.”
”Oh,” said Dr. Lavendar blankly.
”It's blackening on one side,” David announced, and slid down from Mrs. Richie's knee to set the apple spinning again.
”The red cheek is beginning to crack,” said Dr. Lavendar, deeply interested; ”smells good, doesn't it, Mrs. Richie?”
”Have you any little boys and girls?” David asked, watching the apple.
”Come and climb on my knee and I'll tell you,” she bribed him.
He came reluctantly; the apple was spinning briskly now under the impulse of a woolly burst of pulp through the red skin.
”Have you?” he demanded.
”No, David.”
Here his interest in Mrs. Richie's affairs flagged, for the apple began to steam deliciously. Dr. Lavendar, watching her with his shrewd old eyes, asked her one or two questions; but, absorbed in the child, she answered quite at random. She put her cheek against his hair, and whispered, softly: ”Turn round, and I'll give you forty kisses.”
Instantly David moved his head away. The snub was so complete that she looked over at Dr. Lavendar, hoping he had not seen it. ”I once knew a little baby,” she said, trying to hide her embarra.s.sment, ”that had curly hair the color of yours.”
”It has begun to drip,” said David briefly. ”Does Alice live at your house?”
”_Alice!_”
”The gentleman--your brother--said Alice was nineteen. I thought maybe she lived at your house.”
”No, dear. Look at the apple!”
David looked. ”Why not?”
”Why, she lives at her own house, dear little boy.” ”Does she pay you a visit?”
”No. David, I think the apple is done. Why didn't you roast one for Dr. Lavendar?”
”I had to do it for you because you're company. Why doesn't she pay you a visit?”
”Because--oh, for a good many reasons. I'm afraid must go home now.”
The child slipped from her knee with unflattering haste. ”You've got to eat your apple first,” he said, and ran to get a saucer and spoon.
With great care the thread was broken and the apple secured. Then David sat calmly down in front of her to watch her eat it; but after the first two or three mouthfuls, Dr. Lavendar had pity on her, and the smoky skin and the hard core were banished to the dining-room.
While the little boy was carrying them off, she said eagerly, that she wanted him.
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