.."
"You _know_ I can't help having red hair," protested Joy,
coming straight to the point. "And if your grandfather had always
dressed you in costumes, you couldn't get to be modern all at once,
either. I think I'm doing very well."
John threw back his fair head and laughed.
The idea of his grandfather, who had been a wholesale hardware
merchant, with a New England temperament to match, "dressing him in
costumes," was an amusing one, and he said as much.
Joy laughed, too.
"Well, there, you see!" she said triumphantly. "There's a great deal
in not having handicaps. Why, there was a poet used to write things
as if he were me, all about that, and I couldn't stop him. One began:
_'I was a princess in an ivory tower:
Why did you sit below and sing to me?'"_
"Well," said John, as she paused indignantly, "I'll be the goat. Why
_did_ he sit below and sing to you?"
"Because he wanted the pull Grandfather could give him, as far as I
could make out," replied Joy with vigor. "And I don't call it a bit
nice way to act!"
She did not quite know why John laughed this time. But she was very
glad that he was not bored at being with her.
"Oh, Joy, Joy!" he said. "I take it back. You are not
medieval--entirely. Or, if you are, princesses in ivory towers are
more delightful figures than I've always thought them."
"We aim to please," said Joy demurely. "But I have to explain that a
lot, it seems to me.
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