"Decidedly," said Kate, after vainly waiting for me to be put away, "decidedly, if one were to meet you in China or Japan, that little pale face would be somewhere about you."
He said it was a little pale face, but that it had fine eyes, and he caressed her who owned it, very kindly.
"Nonsense!" observed his sister, frowning.
"She is so shy," he pleaded.
"Pretty shyness, indeed!" replied Kate, as she saw me, with the sudden familiarity of childhood, pass my arm around the neck of her brother, and rest my head on his shoulder. "Daisy, it is bed-time."
She rose, but I could not bear to leave Cornelius on the first evening of his kindness. I clasped my two hands around his neck, and looked beseechingly in his face.
"Another quarter of an hour, Kate," he said.
"Not another minute," she replied, taking my hand, for I lingered in his embrace like our mother Eve in Eden. "If you are good." she added, to comfort me, "you shall stay up half an hour longer as the days increase."
"But they are shortening now," I said, mournfully.
"Let her stay up for this one evening," entreated Cornelius, "to make up for her dull day in the back-parlour."