Gregory came back to a realization that Puck had been asking this for some time.
"No, the bears did not get them, Puck; not in the end, but they had a hard time of it."
Puck's eyes blackened with suppressed excitement. It had a startling effect, had excitement on Puck. It was like an acid that ate out all her resemblance to Margaret, obliterated the softness of outline, seemed to devour even the delicate tints of her coloring. Excitement brought Puck up the years to meet him, sent him racing backward to her.
"Oh, I was so frightened they'd get all eaten up and left out there without their mothers and daddies knowing where they was."
Her hand clutched Gregory's, and her other arm protected the beloved Lady Jane.
"Lady Jane's been terrible frightened, too. I couldn't get her to sleep last night, not for a long, long time."
"Dear me, that's too bad. I guess we'll have to settle the matter right now."
Gregory sat on the ground under a huge chestnut and filled his pipe. Puck curled close, cautioning Lady Jane to be "very, most perticular still," and Gregory began a rambling sequel to the tale of the Three Bears. Behind the Three Bears—Jean stood with Herrick.
They were late for luncheon, but Margaret made no comment. Puck did not look over-excited and Gregory was in one of his silent moods. Margaret wanted to ask him details about the Tubercular Tenements, and Gregory knew, by her mole-like burrowings about the subject, that she was pleased with his connection. In a way he could not unravel, it was connected with a new wing some millionaire friend of Mabel Dawson's had just donated to St. Luke's hospital in memory of a dead baby.
As soon as lunch was over, Margaret and Puck went to take a nap before the coming of the Dawsons, and Gregory took the detail his walk with Puck had interrupted, out to the hammock under the maple. But the lines grouped themselves to pictures of the last six weeks and he did nothing. Six weeks! For the first time, Gregory blocked the period out of the past and the incredible richness of it startled him.