“There,” she said, filling my greedy hands with a peach and a bunch of grapes; “go away, little ungrateful, to forget papa’s kiss in searching after plunder—sit down and be quiet.”
I sat down, and while devouring my fruit, watched and listened as children will.
“How beautifully they are arranged!” said my mother, placing and replacing the peaches with her hand, for she had the eye and taste of an artist; “how rich, all the exquisite delicacy of spring blossoms with a fruity ripeness! One can almost taste the fragrance in a peach; at least, I fancy so.”
“Your fancy would almost create a reality!” said my father, smiling.
“How beautiful, how kind in you to devote so much time and so much taste all for us!” continued my mother, lifting her radiant eyes to his; “for I know who did all this, not the old gardener, nor dear good Turner, they could never have blended these leaves.”
“Nay, nay,” answered Lord Clare, over whose lips a mischievous smile had been playing, “do not fling away so much thankfulness; neither the gardener, Turner, or myself had anything to do with it. The fruit came from some kind neighbor, I fancy, who wishes to break my gardener’s heart, for not a peach or grape has ripened as yet under his supervision. I found the basket on a table in my room, and as it was prettily arranged, and looked deliciously ripe, I saved it for you and the child.”
A shade came over the superb eyes of my mother, but she smiled and murmured, “Very well, you brought them, that is real at least.”
“Yes, yes, I brought them sure enough,” he answered, laughing, as he watched me crowding one grape after another into my mouth, while I devoured the rest with my eyes. “See, it is one of Murillo’s children eating grapes. You remember the picture in Munich?”
“Yes, oh, it is very like! What eyes the creature has! How greedily she eats, she is the picture itself!” and my mother laughed also, the last thoroughly gleeful laugh that I ever heard from her lips.
I did not trouble myself about the Murillo, but the fruit was delicious, that was quite enough for me, so I shook my head and would have laughed too had that been possible with so many grapes in my mouth.