Sandie was crimson and confused: Robina, pale and tearful: the little boys bright-eyed and rosy with excitement.
"Robina!" Miss Esperance ejaculated, in deepest displeasure. "What are you doing there with the children? Come down at once while the horse is quiet."
Hastily and ungracefully Robina scrambled out of the cart and the little boys were handed down by Sandie, both deeply disappointed that their "hurrl" had come to this untimely end. Edmund was not one to conceal his feelings at any time, and he forthwith began to roar so lustily that further discussion was impossible, especially as Mause considered it incumbent upon her to bark loudly in joy at this unexpected reunion.
Miss Esperance packed all three into her pony tub, dismissing Davie to walk home and bring the perambulator.
Moggie was the only one who scored, for she was driven off without delay in the direction she had all along wanted to go, and she went like the wind.
"What," asked Montagu of his aunt some days later, "is a Piskey?"
Miss Esperance drew her delicate eyebrows together. "Where have you heard the word?" she inquired in her turn.
"Robina said Mr. Wycherly's a Piskey, and I want to know what it is."
"Robina," said Miss Esperance, "is rather apt to talk about things she does not understand. 'Piskey,' my dear Montagu, is a vulgar way of saying Episcopalian, and the English form of worship is called by that name in Scotland. I beg that you will not let me hear the word, 'Piskey,' again."
"I think it's rather a nice little word," Montagu retorted; "short and cheerful-sounding. I suppose we're Presbeys?"