"Well, take in your sign then! You certainly are behaving like a nut now."
"And you? You think it shows sense to say that man is not ugly? Why, I could have done a better job on a face with a hatchet. He's got a mug like Stony Man, that big mountain up at Luray that looks like a man."
"That's just what I thought," said Nan, "and that is what I liked about him. He looked kind of like a rocky cliff and his eyes were like blue flowers, growing kind of high up, out of reach, but once he smiled at me and I knew they were not out of reach, really. When he smiled sure enough and showed his beautiful white teeth, it made me think of the sun coming out suddenly on the mountain cliff."
"Well, Nan, if you can get some poetry out of this extremely commonplace young man you are a wonder. I am going down to see about my new hat, so I'll bid you good-by."
"If you are getting another new hat, I intend to have one, too!" clamored Lucy.
"Helen," said Douglas, coming back into the library. "Of course you are going to countermand the order for the hat that, after all, you do not really need."
"You heard what Dr. Wright said, surely. You must have taken in the seriousness of this business."
"Seriousness much! I heard a very bumptious young doctor holding forth on what is no doubt his first case, laying down the law to us as though he were kin to us about what we shall eat and wear!"
"Helen, you astonish me! I thought you thought that you loved Father more than any of us."
"So I do! None of you could love him as much as I do. I love him so much that I do not intend to stand for this nonsense about his going off for months on a dirty old boat without ever even being allowed to hug his girls. I bet he won't let this creature boss him any more than I will. Daddy said I could have another hat just so I get a blue one. He doesn't think the one I got is becoming, either," and Helen flounced off up to her room.
"Douglas, what do you think is the matter with her? I have never seen Helen act like this before," said Nan anxiously.
"I think she is trying to shut her eyes to Father's condition. Helen never could stand anything being the matter with Father. You know she always did hate and despise doctors, too. Has ever since she was a little girl when they took out her tonsils. She seemed to think it was their fault. She will come to herself soon," and Douglas wiped off another one of the tears that would keep coming no matter how hard she tried to hold them back.