“I am awfully glad, Daddy darling,” sighed Carlotta snuggling closer in his arms.  “Because I came up here on purpose to tell you that I’ve changed my mind too.  If Dunbury is good for gout maybe—­maybe it will be good for what ails me.  Do you think it might, Daddy?” For answer he held her very tight.

“Do you mean it, child?  Are you here to tell that lad of yours you are ready to come up his Hill to him?”

“If—­if he still wants me,” faltered Carlotta.  “I’ll have to find that out for myself.  I’ll know as soon as I see Phil.  There won’t anything have to be said.  I am afraid there has been too much talking already.  You shouldn’t have told him I cried,” reproachfully.

“How could I help it?  That is, how the deuce did you know I did?” floundered the trapped parent.

“Daddy!  You know you played on Phil’s sympathy every way you could.  It was awful.  At least it would have been awful if you had bought him with my silly tears after you failed to buy him with your silly money.  But he didn’t give in even for a moment—­even when you told him I cried, did he?”

“Not even then.  But that doesn’t mean he doesn’t care.  He—­”

But Carlotta’s hand was over his mouth at that.  How much Phil cared she wanted to hear from nobody but from Phil himself.

Philip Lambert found a queer message waiting for him when he came in from his hike.  Some mysterious person who would give no name had telephoned requesting him to be at the top of Sunset Hill at precisely seven o’clock to hear some important information which vitally concerned the firm of Stuart Lambert and Son.

“Sounds like a hoax of some sort,” remarked Phil.  “But Lizzie has been chafing at the bit all day in the garage and I don’t mind a ride.  Come on, Dad, let’s see what this bunk means.”

Stuart Lambert smiled assent.  And at precisely seven o’clock when dusk was settling gently over the valley and the glory in the western sky was beginning to fade into pale heliotrope and rose tints Lizzie brought the two Lamberts to the crest of Sunset Hill where another car waited, a hired car from the Eagle garage.

From the tonneau of the other car Harrison Cressy stepped out, somewhat ponderously, followed by some one else, some one all in white with hair that shone pure gold even in the gathering twilight.

Phil made one leap and in another moment, before the eyes of his father and Carlotta’s, not to mention the interested stare of the Eagle garage chauffeur, he swept his far-away princess into his arms.  There was no need of anybody’s trying to make Carlotta see.  Love had opened her eyes.  The two fathers smiled at each other, both a little glad and a little sad.

“Brother Lambert,” said Mr. Cressy.  “Suppose you and I ride down the hill.  I rather think this spot belongs to the children.”

“So it seems,” agreed Stuart Lambert.  “We will leave Lizzie for chaperone.  I think there will be a moon later.”