'Roses! Oh, do I look white then?' And she began to rub her cheeks with her hands to hide the blush that rose to them.
'Has your mother said anything to you about Aberdeen and the music lessons?'
'Yes.' She looked up with a loving smile.
I had turned my chair round to the fireplace, where a little glimmer of fire was burning; for it was a wet cool day. Babiole had seated herself on a high cloth-covered footstool, and Ta-ta sat between us, looking from the one to the other and wagging her tail to congratulate us on our return to the old terms of friendship. The sky outside was growing lighter towards evening, and the sun was peeping out in a tearful and shamefaced way from behind the rain-clouds. The girl and the sun together had made a great illumination in the old study, though they were not at their brightest.
'Well, and how do you like the idea?'
'It is quite perfect, like all your ideas for making other people happy.'
'I'm afraid I don't always succeed very well.'
This she took as a direct accusation, and she bent her head very low away from me.
'Has your mother been talking to you, Babiole?'
'Yes'—as a guilty admission.