"It's just the same as if he had saved her life, because he thought she'd tumbled in by accident!"
"Murtagh said Newfoundland dogs would! Oh, Winnie, you are lucky to have him for your own."
"There, now, Miss Rosie; who was right, you or Murtagh?"
"Did he bite, Winnie?"
All the children were speaking at once, pouring out a volley of cross-questions and remarks, interspersed with laughter and caresses of Royal. But they managed to hear Nessa, as trying to forget fright she replied laughingly:
"You are a set of reckless monkeys; come in and do penance now by changing your clothes."
It was, however, only a transient gleam of brightness. They went out again after tea while Frankie was at dinner, but they found the merry fit was over. The gloom of Frankie's approaching departure surrounded them. Their attempt at a game was a failure, and they soon wandered in again to watch for him as he came out of the dining-room.
The evening passed sadly. Frankie was tired and depressed; Cousin Jane reproaching herself for having waited till so late in the season to take Frankie to Torquay, and unable to conceal her anxiety at the prospect of the approaching voyage; the children were gloomily indignant.
By reason of the inconvenient hours of the trains the traveling party was obliged to start at an early hour in the morning, and at six o'clock the children were up to see it off.
The hall fire had not yet been made up for the day: yesterday's gray embers smoldered in the hearth; and in the dreary light of the one lamp Brown had put in the hall, they stood and watched the boxes being brought down.