I sometimes think that it was partly because, in all that long week, she never ceased grumbling, that I did; I hope for life.
Only once I said, "O godmamma! how glad I shall be when I am alone with Joseph again!" And with sudden remorse, I added, "But I beg your pardon, that's grumbling; and you have been so kind!"
Lady Elizabeth took off her eye-glasses, and held out her hands for mine.
"Is it grumbling, little woman?" she said. "Well, I'm not sure."
"I'm not sure," I said, smiling; "for you know I only said I should be so glad to be alone with Joseph, and to try to be good to him; for he is a very kind boy, and if he is a little awkward with the dolls, I mean to make the best of it. One can't have everything," I added, laughing.
Lady Elizabeth drew my head towards her, and stroked and kissed it.
"God bless you, child," she said. "You have inherited your father's smile."
"But, I say, Selina," whispered Joseph, when I went to look at his fortress in the bay-window. "Do you suppose it's because he's dead that she cried behind her spectacles when she said you had got his smile?"