edingly busy it was not
without sacrifice that they visited Phil so constantly. "Nan read me
some new jokes she's just sending off this morning: I wonder how people
think up such things," Phil would observe, turning, perhaps, with her
hand on the pantry door; and she knew that her father's face lighted at
the mention of Nan and her jokes.

The aunts had not been above planting in Phil's young breast the
suspicion that her father was romantically "interested" in one of the
Bartletts--as to which one they hoped she would enlighten them. They
tried to keep track of the visits paid by the father and daughter to
Buckeye Lane; their veiled inquiries were tinged also with suspicions
that Amzi might be contemplating marriage with one of these maiden
ladies of the Lane--the uncertainties in each case as to the bright star
of particular adoration giving edge to their curiosity. The cautious
approaches, the traps set in unexpected places, amused Phil when she was
not angered by them. As she viewed the matter it would be perfectly
natural for her father to marry either of the Bartlett sisters, her only
fear being that marriage would disturb the existing relations between
the two houses which were now so wholly satisfactory.

Phil managed to visit her father's office every day or two, trips to
"town" being among the Montgomery housewife's privileges, a part of her
routine. Much visiting was done in Main Street, and there was always
something to take one into Struby's drug-store, which served as a club.
Even in winter there was hot chocolate and bouillon to justify the
sociably inclined in lingering at the soda-water tables by the front
windows. Phil, heedful of the warnings of the court-house clock, managed
to keep in touch with current history without jeopardizing the
regularity of meals at home. She was acquiring the ease of the Bartletts
in maintaining a household with a minimum of labor and worry. Her aunts
had convoyed her to Indianapolis to buy a gown for the coming-out party,
which was now fixed for the middle of November; and they were to return
to the city shortly for a fitting. All Main Street was aware that Phil
was to be brought out; the aunts had given wide publicity to the matter;
they had sighingly confessed to their friends the difficulties, the
labor, the embarrassment of planting their niece firmly in society.

Phil, dropping into her father's office in the middle of an afternoon
and finding him absent, dusted it