"You look better for tea, my child," said the little old lady. "Do you eat enough at home?"
"As much as I can," said Ida, "but I am more hungry when somebody else has tea with me. There very seldom was anybody till you came though. Only once or twice Lady Cheetham's housekeeper has been to tea. She is Nurse's father's first cousin, and 'quite the lady,' Nurse says. So she won't let her have tea in the kitchen, so both she and Nurse have tea in the nursery, and we have lots of tea-cakes and jam, and Nurse keeps saying, 'Help yourself, Miss Ida! Make yourself at home, Mrs. Savory!' And, you know, at other times, she's always telling me not to be all night over my tea. So I generally eat a good deal then, and I often laugh, for Nurse and Mrs. Savory are so funny together. But Mrs. Savory's very kind, and last time she came she brought me a pincushion, and the time before she gave me a Spa mug and two apples."
Mrs. Overtheway laughed, too, at Ida's rambling account, and the two were in high good-humour.
"What shall I do to amuse you?" asked the little old lady.
"You couldn't tell me another story?" said Ida, with an accent that meant, "I hope you can!"
"I would, gladly, my dear, but I don't know what to tell you about;" and she looked round the room as if there were stories in the furniture which perhaps there were. Ida's eyes followed her, and then she remembered the picture, and said:
"Oh! would you please tell me what the writing means under that pretty little sketch?"
The little old lady smiled rather sadly, and looked at the sketch in silence for a few moments. Then she said:
"It is Russian, my dear. Their letters are different from ours. The words are 'Reka Dom' and they mean 'River House.'"