"Is that all of it?" asks Joyce, gazing at her sister with a curious smile, that is troubled, but has still some growing sense of amusement in it. "What an involved statement! Surely you have forgotten something. That Mr. Dysart was standing near you, for example, and will probably find that it is absolutely imperative that he should call on Lady Monkton next Wednesday, too. Don't set your heart on that, Barbara. I think, after my interview with him to-day, he will not want to see Lady Monkton next Wednesday."
"I know nothing about whether he is to be there or not," says Barbara steadily. "But as Sir George likes to see the children very often, I thought of taking them there on that day. It is Lady Monkton's day. And Dicky Browne, at all events, will be there, and I dare say a good many of your old friends. Do say you will come."
"I hate old friends!" says the girl fractiously. "I don't believe I have any. I don't believe anybody has. I——"
She pauses as the door is thrown open, and Tommy comes prancing into the room accompanied by his father.
CHAPTER XXXVI.
"Children know very little; but their capacity of comprehension is great."
"I've just been interviewing Tommy on the subject of the pictures," says Mr. Monkton. "So far as I can make out he disapproves of Doré."
"Oh! Tommy! and all such beautiful pictures out of the Bible," says his mother.