“Might we?” said little Piers, his face coloring.
“Might you? And what’s to hinder you if I say you may? We might go for a little stroll all by our two selves, mightn’t we?”
“I’d love it better than anything,” said little Piers. “But perhaps Nurse Clara——”
“Nurse Clara needn’t know, you little silly. Go and fetch your cap and we’ll be off.”
Little Piers looked puzzled for a moment; then his face lit up and he ran eagerly into the bedroom. He soon came back.
“I can’t find my cap,” he said.
Mrs. Ives accompanied him into Clara’s bedroom. They searched high and low in vain.
“What a pity!” she said. “And I thought I’d like a spell of the air. Well, you look here, little boy, we will go out presently when Clara comes in.”
“And I could show you the house where I used to live; but oh, I forgot, I can’t—it would be telling my secret.”
“So you have a secret, little un?”