He lowered the puppies circumspectly on to the gravel.
"They'll be whoppers when they're grown," he remarked.
"What shall you call them?"
"Adam and Eve I think, because they're the first of my lot. They're pedigree dogs—and later I may want to show, don't you see."
"Yes, I see," Honoria said.
He came close to her, putting his face up half shyly to be kissed. Then as young Lady Calmady, somewhat ghostly in her trailing, white evening dress, bent her charming head, the boy, suddenly overcome with the manifold excitements of the day, flung his arms round her.
"Oh! oh!" he gasped, "how awfully ripping it is to be back here again with you and Cousin Richard and Aunt Katherine! I wish number-four dormitory would get measles the middle of every term!—Only I forgot—perhaps I ought not to touch you, Honoria, after messing about with the dogs. Do you mind?"
"Not a bit," she said.
"But, Honoria,"—he rubbed his cool cheek against her bare neck—"I say, don't you think you might come and see me, just for a little weeny while, after I'm in bed to-night?"
And young Lady Calmady, thus coaxed, held the slight figure close. She had a very special place in her heart for this small Dick, who in face, and as she hoped in nature also, bore such comfortable resemblance to that elder, and altogether well-beloved, Dick who was the delight of her life.