"Fortune, who is she?" asked Iris, raising a pair of almost frightened eyes to the old nurse's face.
"She is your father's sister, my darling," said Fortune. "She has come on a visit, and uninvited, Peter tells me. I doubt if my master is pleased to see her. She will most likely go away in a day or two, so don't you fret, Miss Iris, love. Now, come along, Master Orion, and let me undress you. It is very late, and you ought to be in your little bed."
"I'm Orion," said the little boy, "and I'm stone blind." He began to strut up and down the nursery with his eyes tightly shut.
"Apollo, please, may I get on your shoulder for a bit, and will you lead me to that place where the first sunbeam rises in the east over the sea?"
"Come," said Fortune, in what Diana would call a "temperish" tone, "we can have no more of that ridiculous story-telling to-night. Miss Iris, you'll ask them to be good, won't you?"
"Yes. Children, do be good," said Iris, in her earnest voice.
Diana trotted up to her sister and took her hand.
"I has something most 'portant to tell you," she said, in a low whisper. "It's an awfu' sorrow, but you ought to know."
"Rub-a-Dub has got deaded."