“Oh, Uncle Ted, this is the very, very first time in my life that I was glad you were away!”
“How's that?”
“Aunt Lizzie let me sleep with her last NIGHT.”
A great joy came into Westonley's heart. “Did she? Really and truly?”
“Really and truly! And oh, Uncle Ted, it was lovely! We talked and talked and talked for such a long time, and she told me such a lot of things about the school she was at in England, and about the girls there—some were very nice, but there were some horrid ones. Oh, she told me heaps of things. It was lovely, and we had Bunny in the room, too”—here she paused to catch her breath—“he tried to get in through the mosquito curtains, and got all tangled up, and tore a most enormous hole in them, and Aunt Lizzie only laughed, and said it didn't matter!”
“You must have had a bully time.”
“Splendid! And Aunt Lizzie and I are going to the beach together one day next week to get pippies, and she says she won't mind if she gets sopping wet right up to her face.”
When they reached the house they found Mrs Westonley awaiting them on the verandah, and when her husband put his arms around her and kissed her repeatedly, she blushed like a young girl. And as the days went on he saw with delight that she had at last taken the child to her heart.
Breakfast was over, and Westonley in his study was talking to his head stockman when he saw Brooke riding up.