Not until Joan came back and put strong arms round the little creature to carry her upstairs did some ray of intelligence flash out from the black eyes.
“No, don’t take me away,” she said. “I want to stay here to talk to Bram.”
And she stretched out feebly over Joan’s shoulder two little hands towards him.
He took them in his, and pressed upon each of them a long, passionate kiss.
“No, dear. It will be better for you,” he said simply.
And then, with a sudden return to the extreme docility she had shown to him all the evening, she smiled, and let her hands and her head fall as Joan started with her burden on the way upstairs.
CHAPTER XXIV. MR. BIRON’S REPENTANCE.
Then Bram went upstairs also, and knocked at Mr. Biron’s door.