"Oh!—round the world and back again."
"Coming back's nice, isn't it?"
"Only when it's coming home."
"Isn't your home here? I thought you spoke—funny. Haven't you any one who looks after you? A mother—or a sister?"
"No mother, no sister, no wife." The stranger spoke incisively. "No sweetheart, even," he added, after an appreciable pause.
Fenella blushed. Of course she hadn't meant to ask that; still, it was interesting to know. The child had a strange pertinacity in constructing correct views of new acquaintances that deceived a good many people.
A sudden squall lashed the windows with rain. She looked round in affright.
"Oh!—help!" she said again, softly.
"Now what's the matter?"
"I've forgotten my 'brolly'."