"Two or three times! You do not mean to say you have never been in Oxford
Street more than two or three times!"
"Indeed I do, Cornelius. I was ten when I came here, always weak and sickly; then we went to Leigh, and we have been back about a fortnight. It is not so wonderful, you see."
Cornelius smiled, smoothed my hair, and said something about "violets in the shade, and birds in their nests."
"Yes, but birds leave their nests sometimes, don't they, Cornelius?" I asked a little impatiently.
"You want to go to town," he exclaimed, astonished.
I smiled.
"Oh!" he said, reproachfully, "have you really a wish, and will you not give me the pleasure of gratifying it? Do tell me what you wish for, Daisy—pray do."
He spoke warmly, and looked eagerly into my face.
"Well, then," I replied, "take me some day to Oxford Street. I know the
Pantheon is there, and I remember it as a sort of fairy-palace."
"Some day!—to-day, Daisy—this very day. Though this is not the season, there must be places worth seeing; museums, exhibitions—"