"Only two more, Maud. Do go. I shall read faster if you do not talk to me. And then I will come,
And you shall see with your eyes of blue
What a nice surprise I have got for you."
Maud went away slowly, and when she had reached the door she turned to say,—
"Be quick, Philip."
And then she went and put on her garden hat and went into the garden, down the walk between the currant bushes to a piece of waste ground grown over with short grass, that she called her playground, for here she could run about, and jump, and skip, and hop, and try to walk upon stilts, and do all sorts of things; and the gardener did not find fault, as he did if she skipped in the garden walks, and knocked off a flower here and there.
"I wonder what the surprise is," said Maud, as she sat down on a bench to wait for Philip.
Before long she saw him coming along, holding his arms behind him. It was plain he had got something he did not want her to see.
As he came nearer to her, he called out—
"Three guesses, Maud. What have I got in my hand?"