Bobby looked about him with eager delighted eyes. There was no question of his not noticing the changes. He remarked on every one.
'You've got new stair carpets; the walls are papered quite different. You've got flowers in the staircase window. Oh, what pretty pictures!'
He was upstairs like lightning, none of the rooms appealed to him like his nursery. The green baize door was there still, but when he came into his old domain he drew a long breath. Pretty chintz curtains were in the windows. There was a thick soft red carpet under foot, a bookcase with delightful looking story-books, a stand of flowers, a globe of goldfish, and several fresh pictures on the walls, which had been papered with pink roses to match the chintz.
'It's like a fairy book!' said the delighted Bobby. 'She waves her wand—the fairy, you know—and all the old things come new, and the ugly things come pretty!'
'Lady Isobel is the fairy,' said True. She was looking about her with great curiosity.
'I never have lived in quite such a big house,' she said, as, after having seen the nursery, she followed Lady Isobel downstairs again, and they went in and out of all the rooms.
Bobby was still exclaiming as he went about.
'Look, True, those were the pictures which used to frown on me in the dining-room when I went in. Me and Nobbles finked we heard them say, "Run away; you've no business here." But they seem quite smiling now, and what lovely flowers on the dinner-table! There never used to be such pretty ones when I sawed them before. And the blinds are up, and the sun is coming in, and, oh! do come to the libr'ry and see what it's like now. There, look, True! those horrid blind heads are nearly all gone; and it's got a new carpet and pretty curtains and flowers. Oh, it's so 'normously diff'rent!'
'We are not going to have any gloomy rooms here if we can help it,' said Lady Isobel smiling; 'and now come into the drawing-room. You are going to have tea with us there for a treat.'
It looked quite a new room to Bobby. All the furniture had been altered; magazines and books, work, and flowers gave the impression that it was a room to be lived in. It seemed to reflect some of Lady Isobel's sweet cheerfulness upon those who came inside it.