"Why, I thought Noel was the good boy of the family!"
"He doesn't mean to be naughty, but he thinks of such strange things to do. Yesterday he got some paint from the attic and painted a lot of the garden hose. He made himself in a filthy mess, and the gardener is furious!"
"Well, get Diana to look after him for an hour to-morrow and come over here. Come about ten o'clock."
So this was settled. When Noel heard of it, he said:
"I don't want Diana to look after me. I'm going to be busy in the garden."
"So am I," said Diana; "we'll garden together. I want to tie up my rose, the branches tumble about in the wind."
"And I'm going to hose my Chris'mas tree. He loves a shower bath."
But the next day was rainy, and Mrs. Tubbs told them they must stay in the house. Chris was allowed to go to the Rectory. Diana and Noel had the nursery to themselves. Diana got out her story and began to write. Noel played with his bricks for some time, then tiring of it stole out of the room. Diana was too engrossed in her story to notice his disappearance.
He went downstairs and wandered into the drawing-room, and from there into his mother's boudoir.
"What can I do?" he muttered to himself. "I must get my hands busy, or Satan will find mischief for me, that's what Nurse always says." He began opening the drawers of his mother's writing bureau. In her anxious haste she had left them unlocked. Then he found himself turning over the contents, though he had an uneasy feeling that he was doing wrong. In the first one which he opened there were letters and old papers, a box of sealing-wax and some old pens and pencils. The next was in a very untidy state. "I'll tidy all Mums' drawers," he said to himself: "that will be very kind and good of me."