"My big doll, mummie."
"Yes; with a lot of fine clothes that come off and on, and a cradle for dolly to sleep in. Wasn't it good of them? And now I hope Ivy is going to stay with them."
"Mummie and daddy too!"
"Mummie will take you there, darling. And then mummie and daddy have to go on somewhere else for a time."
"Where?"
"A good way off. Daddy has to go; and mummie can't let him go alone."
"Why-because must daddy go?"
"I'm afraid you can't understand that, Ivy. You are too little. By-and-by, when you are older, you will see why it had to be. You must believe now that daddy wouldn't go if it was not right. There are many things that we can't understand till we are older—things that daddy and mummie can't understand now, and never will till—by-and-by! And this is a thing that little Ivy can't understand yet. But you can trust daddy and mummie, darling. You know we wouldn't go if we could help it, if it wasn't for little Ivy's good in some way."
Perhaps poor Mrs. Croft was saying all this as much for her own comfort as for Ivy's; yet Ivy seemed in a way to understand.
And then Mrs. Croft added, "We should love to take our darling with us; but we must not."