‘Yes, I have.’
‘And the little boy?’
‘Yes.’
‘I can’t say he is a beauty, but you who are such a baby fancier will find him a very animated, intelligent child. I hope all fear is over about him now; he has thriven wonderfully of late.’
Perverseness prompted Theodora to say, ‘The baby at the lodge is twice the size.’
John saw there was no use in talking, and shut himself into his room. The next instant Sarah appeared, with the baby on one arm, and a pile of clothes on the other.
No one was in sight, so Theodora could gratify her passionate yearnings for her brother’s babe; justifying herself to her own pride, by considering it charity to an overloaded servant.
‘Let me have him. Let me carry him up.’
‘Thank you, ma’am, I’ll not fash you,’ said Sarah, stiffly.
‘Let me! Oh! let me. I have often held a baby. Come to me, my precious. Don’t you know your aunt, your papa’s own sister? There, he smiled at me! He will come! You know me, you pretty one?’