He was overcome with joy
and for a moment could not speak. Then he said:
"Good gracious, Bab! What a--what a _diferent_ necktie."
I explained my reasons for buying it for him, and also Tom
Gray's objecting to it as to juvenile.
"Young impudense!" said father, refering to Tom. "I darsay
I am quite an old fellow to him. Tie it for me, Bab."
"Though old of body, you are young in mentalaty," I said.
But he only laughed, and then asked about the pin, which I wore
over my heart.
"Where did you get that?" he asked in quite a feirce voice.
I told him, but not quite all. It was the first time I had
concealed an _amour_ from my parents, having indeed had but few,
and I felt wicked and clandestine. But, alas, it is the way of
the heart to conceal its deepest feelings, save for blushes,
which are beyond bodily control.
My father, however, mearly sighed and observed:
"So it has come at last!"
"What has come at last?" I asked, but feeling that he meant
Love. For although forty-two and not what he once was, he still
remembers his Youth.
But he refused to anser, and inquired politely if I felt to
much grown-up, with the Allowence and so on, to be held on knees
and occasionaly tickeled, as in other days.
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