"Oh, you are not allowed to go into the parks?"[19]
"Not unless I go to tea with somebody. I do wish mother and father would leave off pretending to be rich."
"Then you would have to leave this pretty house and garden and go and live in a street."
"I should like that. There would be lots of other girls and boys to play with. I say, what time is it?"
When I looked at my watch and told her it was ten minutes past five, she jumped up in consternation, and exclaimed: "Oh, come along quickly. I didn't know it was five yet."
We hurried up through the garden, and met Mr. Hobbs, who stopped us, and said severely: "Didn't you hear the clock strike?"
"No," said Mollie. "We were busy talking. I'm so sorry, Mr. Hobbs, I won't be late again."
"You said that yesterday," said Mr. Hobbs. "And last week I caught you out here when it was nearly six. The next time it happens I'll give you a great big box of chocolate creams, and see that you eat them all."
The explanation of this awful threat, as I learnt later, was that the gardens of the rich were given up to those who looked after them, and their friends, after certain hours, and it was not permitted to their owners to enter them.
As we went across the lawn, Sir Herbert was stringing up the tennis net, and two of the maids were standing talking to him. All three of them looked at us with displeasure as we scuttled by, and Mollie said: "I shall catch it for this when I get in."