“I shall ask Mr. Fenton,” she said slowly; “I don’t think I could ask St. Quentin.”
“I think asking Mr. Fenton is not at all a bad idea,” Miss Osric said cordially; “but, my dear Sydney, we mustn’t dawdle here in the cold even to discuss points of duty. Have you any more presents to distribute?”
“Just one for Pauly at the Vicarage,” the girl said, gathering up the reins again; “that is the parcel underneath the seat that you said took up as much room as we did. It’s a horse and waggon—a horse with real hair—and I think Pauly will be able to get himself into the waggon if he tucks his legs up. I’m sure he will be pleased—the darling!”
“I wonder how long that quarter’s allowance is going to last,” laughed Miss Osric, as they turned the ponies’ heads up the drive to the Vicarage. “You’ve been so lavish over Christmas presents, Sydney; that parcel for London alone must have nearly ruined you!”
“I am rather near bankruptcy,” owned Sydney. “It is shocking to confess, but I never had such a lot of money to spend in my life, and I went and spent it. But I am not a bit sorry,” she concluded, “for, just for once, they will have at home exactly what they wanted.” Pauly had seen them coming from the window of his father’s study, against which he was flattening his small round nose till it looked exactly like a white button. He flew to the door and cast himself upon them in the hall with a shriek of delight.
“Oh, do you know, it’s going to be Chwistmas Day to-morrow!” he exclaimed, “and I am going to church in the morning like a big man, and Santa Claus is coming in the night, daddy finks, to put fings in my stocking, ’cause I’ve been a very good boy for years and not runned away or been lostened!”
The Vicar, too, was not behindhand in his welcome, though he was not quite so conversational as his little son.
“Come into the study, both of you,” he said; “we’ve got a real Yule log there, haven’t we, Pauly?—such a monster!—and I’m sure you must be frozen.”
The Sydney of six weeks ago would have accepted Mr. Seaton’s offer, but the Sydney of to-day had learned to think what would annoy her cousin and Lady Frederica.