"My dear man, that isn't playing the game! You are wanted here in my absence: you know you are! And Bob is not well yet, and there's nobody you can trust to superintend the lads over at the farm. You can go off when I come back."
Justin gazed back at her, and a glimmer of a smile came to his lips.
"I funk being snowed up here alone with these imps of children. I remember them of old."
"But you will not have them riotous now. The snow is disappearing. Mrs. Fergusson wrote to me that she hopes to be here to-morrow. They will be at lessons all the morning, and their little den occupies them, and keeps them well away from your vicinity."
"All right. You had better go. I won't make any promises, one way or the other."
So Anstice made preparations to go. The children were rather dismayed.
"You're sure you're not going to run away from us, and leave us altogether?"
Josie asked this question at the luncheon table.
"She dare not do that," said Justin.
"Why? When she gets away, she can do what she likes."