"Well, you will have to walk about the hotel dining-room with some girl; you see if you don't," declared Gerald. But Philip did not. Nearly all the evening Gerald found his friend near him, where the boy could listen to the fine speeches lavished on Touchtone and every member of that crew of Ossokosee—quite numerous enough to turn older heads than Philip's. Miss Beauchamp, who was quite old enough to be Philip's aunt, declared that she, for her part, "felt jealous of Gerald" when Philip said that he would leave the scene for a while to see the boy quickly to his bed, Gerald having become fagged out with his enjoyment.
"You had better adopt him, Touchtone," Mr. Marcy suggested as the two turned away.
"O, I will, if his father will let me," retorted Philip, laughingly.
"Humph!" said Mr. Marcy, half aloud, "I doubt if he'd mind it half as much as he ought."
The party broke up half an hour later. Early hours were the custom at the Ossokosee. Philip was to sleep in Gerald's room that the accommodation he thus vacated might be given to some particular guests. The races had filled the house.
