"My darling, it was very wrong of you to leave the garden," she said. "You know when Briggs left you, she never thought for a moment that you would go outside the gates. And, oh, how dirty you are! Your nice white suit is all black! Miss Baggerley, I fear you met a disobedient, a very disobedient little boy indeed."
"I hurted myself very much," Chris remarked, in the most pathetic of voices.
Granny relented. "Where did you hurt yourself, my dear child?" she asked, with some anxiety.
"On my knee, and on my face, and on my hand," he replied still with melancholy.
"Go at once, darling, to Briggs, and ask her to bathe all your bruises with warm water," she said. "Or, if they are very bad, tell her that she will find some lotion in my room."
"Wasn't Jack a naughty little dog?" he asked, recovering, as he held up a smudgy little face to be kissed.
"I'm afraid it was someone else who was naughty," she answered, with an attempt at severity; "yes, very naughty indeed. But we'll say no more about it, for I think you are sorry; are you not, my Chris?"
"Very, very sorry, Granny," he replied, but more cheerfully than penitently, as he ran off, relieved at the matter ending in so easy and pleasant a fashion.
"I'm afraid I spoil him dreadfully," Granny said, looking fondly after the retreating little figure. 'You're ruining the little beggar'; that's what my son Godfrey tells me. But then my Chris has no father or mother, so I feel very tenderly towards him. He has such a lovable nature too, it is difficult not to spoil him. You have doubtless seen that for yourself already, have you not?
"And now, my dear," she added kindly, "I'm sure you must want your tea after your long journey, and that hot walk afterwards. It was a most unfortunate mistake about the carriage. I cannot tell you how distressed, how very distressed, I am about it."