“What about your mother now, missy?”
“’Cos mother’s just a little——Oh, nothing,” said Sibyl, pulling herself up short.
“She likes me best when I’m pretty,” continued the child; “but father likes me always. Nursie, do you know that my ownest father came down here to-day, and that I dwove to the station to see him off? Did you know it?”
“No, Miss Sibyl, I can’t say I did.”
“He talked to me in a most pwivate way,” continued Sibyl. “He told me most ’portant things, and I promised him, Nursie—I promised him that I’d——Oh, no! I won’t tell you. Perhaps I won’t be able to keep my promise, and then you’d——Nothing, Nursie, nothing; don’t be ’quisitive. I can see in your face that you are all bursting with ’quisitiveness; but you aren’t to know. I am going to a party with my own mother after lunch, and Lady Helen is coming, and Mr. Rochester. I like them both very much indeed. Lady Helen told me stories last night. She put her arm round my waist, and she talked to me; and I told her some things, too, and she laughed.”
“What did you tell her, Miss Sibyl?”
“About my father and mother. She laughed quite funnily. I wish people wouldn’t; it shows how little they know. It’s ’cos they are so far from being perfect that they don’t understand perfect people. But there’s the lunch gong. Yes, I do look very nice. Good-by, Nursie.”
Sibyl ran downstairs. The children always appeared at this meal, and she took her accustomed place at the table. Very soon afterwards, she, her mother, Lady Helen, and Mr. Rochester, started for a place about ten miles off, where an afternoon reception was being given.
Sibyl felt inclined to be talkative, and Mrs. Ogilvie, partly because she had a sore feeling in her heart with regard to her husband’s departure, although she would not acknowledge it, was inclined to be snappish. She pulled the little girl up several times, and at last Sibyl subsided in her seat, and looked out straight before her. It was then that Lady Helen once more put her arm round her waist.
“Presently,” said Lady Helen, “when the guests are all engaged, you and I will slip out by ourselves, and I will show you one of the most beautiful views in all England. We climb a winding path, and we suddenly come out quite above all the trees, and we look around us; and when we get there, you’ll be able to see the blue sea in the distance, and the ships, one of which is going to take your——”