“No,” said Conny, after a prolonged observation of the object Liz had pointed out; “it’s only a branch of the lilac tree blown about by the wind.”
A minute later, however, and Liz began to clap her hands triumphantly, although still keeping her face fixed to the window.
“I was right, I was right!” she exclaimed in triumph. “The speck is getting nearer, and, see, there are two more behind.”
“I believe you are right,” said Conny, after another steady glance down the lane. “There are three people approaching the house, and—”
“Dat’s pa in front, I know,” shouted out Cissy, interrupting her and clapping her hands like Liz, her whilom sad little face beaming with gladness. “I see him, I see him, and he’s dot Teddy in his arms!”
“So he has,” said Conny, carried away by the excitement out of her ordinarily staid and decorous demeanour. “Let us all run down and meet him!”
Her suggestion was hailed with a shout of exclamation; and, the next moment, forgetful of the falling flakes and the risk of getting damp feet, which Conny the careful was ever warning the others against, the three had run out into the hall, opened the outside door of the porch, which the wind banged against the side of the passage with a thump that shook the house, and were racing towards the entrance gate over the white expanse of lawn, now quite covered with some six inches of snow.
Just as the little girls reached the gate, all breathless in a batch, it was opened from without, and they were confronted by their father with Master Teddy on his shoulder, still holding the kitten in his arms; while, close behind, followed Jupp taking care of Mary the nurse.
“Oh, papa!” cried Conny, Cissy, and Liz in chorus, hanging on to their father’s coat-tails as if afraid he would get away from them again; and so, in a motley procession, Teddy apparently king of the situation and Jupp and Mary still bringing up the rear, they marched into the hall, where Molly the cook, having heard the door bang when the little girls rushed out, was waiting with a light to receive them.
“Take the porter to the kitchen, Molly,” said Mr Vernon, “and give him, mind, a good cup of tea for bringing home Master Teddy. But for his kindness we might not perhaps have seen the little truant again—to-night, at all events.”