Come here at once."
Mary dropped one knee upon the mat; caught her arms about the
children. She pressed a cool face against each side her wet and
burning countenance, gave kisses, and upon the added stress of this
new emotion choked: "Good-bye, little ducklings!"
"Oh, darling, _darling_ Miss Humf'ay, we _will_ be good if you'll
stay!" They felt this was the desperate threat that so often followed
their misdemeanours put into action.
She held them, hugging them. "It isn't that. You have been good."
"Then you said you would stay for ever and ever if we were good."
"Not ever and ever; I said--I said perhaps a fairy prince would come
to take me. Didn't I?"
This was the romance that forbade tears. But David had doubts. He
regarded the hansom at the door: "That's a cab, not a carriage. Fairy
princes don't come in cabs."
"The prince is waiting. Kiss me, darling Davie. Angie, dear, dear
Angle, kiss me."
She rose. Mrs. Chater had come from the stairs, now laid hands upon
the small people and dragged them back from the pretty figure about
which they clung.
They screamed, "Let me go!"
David roared; dropped prone upon the mat to kick and howl: "Take away
your _hand_, mother!"
Angela gasped: "Oh, comeback, comeback, darling Miss Humf'ay!"
With a glare of defiance into Mrs.
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