"Oh, Effa's making gingerbread animals for Hope. Let's have a few! And I have some root beer on ice. We've just made it."
"Oh, now, don't bother"
"No bother. I feel empty myself; I've been rushing round so hard, getting ready for them."
"Well, that certainly goes to the right spot!" Mrs. Driggs wiped away a mustache of creamy foam. "You'll be glad to have Hope back, I guess."
"Indeed I will. You know she's been with her mother seven months. I guess she'll seem quite grown up to me. Effa and IJ are just as excited as anything."
"Her mother'll miss her."
"Yes, she will, dreadfully. She's at such a darling age now. I remember when Joe was her age; there was something new all the time. I don't believe I could have stood it to miss a day."
"Joe glad she's coming home?"
"Why, of course, Mrs. Driggs! Only, you know it's a funny thing," said Kate in a burst of confidence: "last summer I thought Hope would be all the comfort in the world to him, because he certainly does adore his little girl, but somehow it seemed sometimes as if she was making him feel worse. I couldn't exactly put my finger on it, and perhaps I was just imagining"
"Maybe it's because he loves the mother too much, and Hope keeps reminding him." Mrs. Driggs flipped the gingerbread crumbs from her bosom, her eyes star-
