It was profound philosophy for six years old! The necessary consequence of good must be something better.
Joyce, thinking of those angry faces crowding round her and her babies, and of the one terrible face which conjured up such a host of dreadful memories, sighed.
"Ah! Falcon," she said, "good things cannot come all at once—good results, I mean; but give me a kiss and run away, and mind you give Grannie no trouble while I am gone." Then Joyce turned for a moment into the pretty sitting room which Mrs. Arundel occupied. Since Gratian's marriage she had lived with her son and his wife. She had separate rooms on the upper floor of the large house, and her own maid. The arrangement was perfectly harmonious, and the little household was very happy.
"You will not mind letting the children dine with you, dear Grannie?" Joyce said.
"Mind! it will be a great treat; do not hasten back."
"I thought after dinner, if Piers liked, we would go and see Mrs. More; he does not get out enough."
"Take a carriage at my expense, dear, and drive to Windsor terrace, and then over the Downs. It will be a lovely afternoon, and your mother will enjoy it."
Joyce shook her head.
"I doubt if mother will come; but I will do my best, thank you. Gilbert will not come home till quite a late dinner—supper, as my mother calls all meals after six o'clock."
Joyce and Charlotte were soon walking quickly up Park Street, for their lungs were good and their limbs strong, and Charlotte forgot her complaints for the time, in the delight of looking in at several shop windows lately opened in Park Street.