‘You will let us see him after dinner?’
‘I have been looking forward to it very much, but he will be asleep, and you won’t see his pretty ways and his earnest dark eyes.’
‘I long to see the sweet child,’ said Miss Marstone. ‘I dote on such darlings. I always see so much in their countenances. There is the germ of so much to be drawn out hereafter in those deep looks of thought.’
‘My baby often looks very intent.’
‘Intent on thoughts beyond our power to trace!’ said Miss Marstone.
‘Ah! I have often thought that we cannot fathom what may be passing in a baby’s mind,’ said Emma.
‘With its fixed eyes unravelling its whole future destiny!’ said Miss Marstone.
‘Poor little creature!’ murmured Violet.
‘I am convinced that the whole course of life takes its colouring from some circumstance at the time unmarked.’
‘It would frighten me to think so,’ said Violet.