"Serve 'em right, every one of 'em!"
Mrs. Alfrick had been a pretty woman in her time, and still possessed a certain attractiveness when she chose to smile and look pleasant.
"Mary ain't coming yet, my dear," she said; "she's got a lot o' work to do. I'd stop along of you myself, pretty, but I'm off to the fair with the children. There now; what's the matter now, what are you crying about, child?"
"I want to go to the fair," sobbed Lily; "I want to go with the other children."
"Well, to be sure!" murmured Mrs. Alfrick, smiling.
She sat down in the large red armchair, took Lily on her knee, and danced her about for a minute or two. She could not quite make up her mind, yet every moment the idea seemed more clever, the temptation more irresistible. It would be a fine trick to play on that disagreeable prig of a John Randal, a fine punishment for Mary, with her ill-natured ways. It could not hurt the child; she would be with the others all the time.
"Look here, Lily," she said, "would you like to go to the fair with me and Tommy and the rest of us?"
The child stopped crying and looked up. Then she shook her curls violently. "John said I wasn't to go."
"Oh, my dear, that was 'cause he was going away to see Mr. Bland, and there wasn't nobody to take you. Mother and Polly don't like fairs. But he couldn't have no objection to you going along of me."
"Couldn't he?" asked Lily, her eyes dilating joyfully.