Mrs. Daly hardly seemed to pay attention to the sense of the words. She had got her arms round Theresa and was thinking only of her.
"It's all one," she answered. "You've brought her back alive, an' I thought she was dead."
A few minutes more and the children had left the cottage. The crowd stayed behind anxious to hear at last Theresa's story, and they walked soberly along the road with Nessa.
"Isn't it delightful," said Rosie, "to think that it's all so well over?"
"Berry belightful," returned Ellie, so emphatically that she made them all laugh. But then she wanted to know—"What for all the people were laughin'?" and while Rose explained, the other children walked on silently.
CHAPTER XIII.
In the meantime Mr. Blair had heard from Mr. Plunkett an account of the children's behavior, and at dinner that evening he spoke about it to Nessa.
"Mr. Plunkett does not know how to manage people," she said, after she had explained the story from the children's point of view. "It is a pity."
"Ah!" said her uncle, amused at the quaint gravity with which she announced her opinion.