“Oh, Mother Carey,” cried Cecil, colouring all over, “I didn’t know what I was doing! She gave me hope!”
“I give you hope too,” said Caroline, “though I don’t know how it might have been if she had come down just now!”
“Don’t!” entreated Cecil. “Babie is as good as my sister. Why, where is she?”
“Fled, and no wonder!”
“And won’t she, Esther, come?”
“She is far too much frightened and overcome. She says you may go to her father, and I think that is all you can expect her to say.”
“Is it? Won’t she see me? I don’t want it to be obedience.”
“I don’t think you need have any fears on that score.”
“You don’t? Really now? You think she likes me just a little? How soon can I get down? Have you a train-bill?”
Then during the quest into trains came a fit of humility. “Do you think they will listen to me? You are not the sort who would think me a catch, and I know I am a very poor stick compared with any of you, and should have gone to the dogs long ago but for Jock, ungrateful ass as I was to him last year. But if I had such a creature as that to take care of, why it would be like having an angel about one. I would—indeed I would—reverence, yes, and worship her all my life long.”