The servant had not been gone many seconds before the door opened, and a rather pale face, not raised very high above the level of the floor, peeped into the room. The eyes belonging to the face soon made out Owen's figure in the dimness, and a childish voice said, in a subdued and stealthy tone, "Hulloa!"
"Hulloa!" returned Owen, in a tone not quite so subdued, but still low; for there was a general hush in the house which would have made ordinary speech seem startling.
"Do you want May?" asked the child.
"Yes; I do."
"I heard you tell James to give her your card. Who are you?"
"I'm Owen. Who are you?" replied Owen, listening all the while for the expected footfall.
"I'm Harold."
Upon this, a second rather pale face, still nearer to the ground, peeped in at the door; and a second childish voice piped out faintly, "And I'm Wilfred." Then the two children marched solemnly into the room, shutting the door behind them, and stared at Owen with judicial gravity.
"May's my cousin," said Harold, after contemplating the stranger for a while in silence.
"And May's my cousin, too," observed Wilfred.