The next day seemed fine enough to justify Mrs. Grey, Margaret, and Monica in making an expedition into Oxford to see about Christmas presents; and in the afternoon, while Pauline was sitting alone in the nursery, Guy was shown in by Janet. Pauline felt very shy and blushful when she met him so intimately as this, after all her plans for him on the night before. He, too, seemed ill at ease, and she was sadly positive he missed Margaret. The sense of embarrassment lasted until tea-time, when Janet came in to say that the Rector, hearing of Mr. Hazlewood's arrival, had decided to have tea in the nursery.
"Oh, what fun!" cried Pauline, clapping her hands. "Janet, do give him the mug with 'a present for a good boy' on it!"
"Dear me, Miss Pauline, what things you do think of, I do declare. Well, did you ever? Tut-tut! Fancy, for your father, too!"
Nevertheless Janet sedately put the mug on the tray. When she was gone Pauline turned to Guy and said:
"I'm sure Father thinks he ought to come and chaperon us. Isn't he sweet?"
Presently the Rector appeared, looking very tall in the low doorway. He nodded cheerfully to Guy:
"Seen Vartani? You know he's that pale, blue fellow from Nazareth. Very often he's a washy lilac, but this is genuinely blue."
"No, I don't think I noticed it—him, I mean," said Guy, apologetically.
"Oh, Father, of course he didn't! It's a tiny iris," she explained to Guy, "and Father puts in new roots every year...."
"Bulbs, my dear, bulbs," corrected Mr. Grey. "It's one of the Histrio lot."