"Why do you plague yourself with all these children," he said, "instead of taking a peaceable walk in peaceable society?"
"I like the children," she answered, "and I should have found no society but my own this afternoon, for Mrs. Vavasour was going to pay visits, she said, and Maria went out directly after lunch."
"And you think your own society would have been less peaceable than that of these noisy little ruffians?"
"I don't know," she answered; "I like walking by myself very much sometimes, but I like the children, too, and Madge and I are great friends."
"I think Madge shows her sense—she and I are great friends, too," said Graham, laughing.
"Madge thinks there is no one in the world like Uncle Horace— she is always talking about you," said Madelon, shyly.
"That is strange—to me she is always talking about you—she looks upon you as a sort of fairy princess, I believe, who has lived in a charmed world as strange to her as any she reads about in story-books. Madge's experiences are limited, and it does not take much to set her little brain working. If Maria and I are abroad next winter, I think I must get Georgie to spare her to me for a time."
"Are you going abroad again?" said Madelon; and as she asked the question, a chill shadow seemed to fall upon the bright spring landscape.
"It is possible— I have heard of an opening."
He paused for a moment, and then went on,—