“And so you are the housekeeper’s daughter?”
“Yes, sir.”
“How is it that I haven’t seen anything of you before?”
“Because mother never lets me go out of her room.”
“Never lets you go out of her room?”
“No, sir.”
“Why?”
“Because she is afraid that the——” Here the child lowered her voice to a tone of mysterious awe—“chief justice would be angry if he saw me about.”
“Bosh about his being angry! He is not a King Herod to hate the sight of a child, or desire the death of the innocents. You don’t mean to tell me that you are cooped up in the housekeeper’s room all the time?”
“Oh no, sir, I am not cooped up anywhere any of the time; only the poultry for Christmas was cooped up, and that was in the back yard; I saw them through the window. But I sit on a nice little stool in mother’s room and sew pretty quilt pieces.”