"Has you got woods wound here?"
"Yes, my dear; there are some nice woods about a mile away."
"I'd like to go there this afternoon, please, Aunt Jane. I has 'portant business to do in those woods." Diana looked round the table very solemnly as she said these last words. Philip could not help laughing.
"Hush, Philip! I won't have Diana laughed at," said Mrs. Dolman, who for some reason was now inclined to be specially kind to the little girl. "If you would really like to spend the afternoon in the woods, Diana, I see nothing against it," she remarked. "You are all having a holiday, and as to-morrow lessons will of course be resumed, I do not see why your wish should not be gratified. Miss Ramsay, you will of course accompany the children, and, Lucy, my dear, you can have the pony chaise, if you promise to be very careful. You can take turns to sit in it, children. And what do you say to asking cook to put up a few bottles of milk and some cake and bread and butter—then you need not return home to tea?"
"That would be delightful, mamma," said Lucy, in her prim voice.
"Thank you, mamma," said Mary.
"French, my dears; French!" said Miss Ramsay.
"As it is a holiday, Miss Ramsay, the children are allowed to tender their thanks to me in the English tongue," said Mrs. Dolman.
Miss Ramsay bowed and slightly colored.
"Is you going with us?" asked Diana, fixing her dark eyes full upon the governess' face.