"I daresay at this present moment she is enjoying it all hugely."
"She is perfectly happy; and you'll find her radiant. But to-morrow! Well there is no use looking forward, is there?"
"None whatever. I'll go and see how things are going."
Mr. Fortescue found the little party in the summer house and stood watching without being seen for a few minutes. Sheila was surrounded with the six children, who sat on the floor at her feet. Both Sheila and her audience were so engrossed that they did not notice Peter's approach.
Though he utterly disapproved of the plan, he could not help thinking what a pretty picture it made, and had Sheila been a girl who was ready to take the consequences of her own actions, and would persevere to the end, Mr. Fortescue could not think of a happier way in which to spend some of her large fortune, than to bring happiness into the lives of the poor little children that were listening to her story so attentively. But alas! her cousin knew Sheila too well to hope for a moment that Sheila would do her duty to them. The work would of course devolve on the poor tired woman on the drawing-room sofa.
Suddenly a small boy caught sight of the intruder.
He rose and made a dash at him and tried to kick him.
"Go away," he cried, "we don't want you."
Peter took hold of his arm and made him face him.
"You are a nice young man to behave like this," he said with a laugh. "You'll have to learn manners while you are here."