‘For my wife, Dame Isabel,
Wishes what I fear to tell.’”
“Capital!” exclaimed Sweet William with enthusiasm, “Philomène rightly named, beloved of the fairies! It is not often we have the good luck to come across such a child. Now we will add up the marks. Six for the first question, three for the second, ten for the third, four for the fourth, none for the fifth, five for the sixth, five for the seventh, ten for the eighth. That makes forty-three out of fifty, which is eighty-six per cent. I congratulate you, my dear, and have much pleasure in presenting you with a latchkey, exactly like my own.”
Philomène’s face lit up, her cheeks glowed and her eyes sparkled, but “Thank you very much” was all she said as she took the key and slipped it into her pocket.
“I expect it will be a treat for you to come out here now and again,” said Sweet William, watching her closely, “not indeed that there isn’t plenty to amuse you indoors.”
“Not indoors at home,” said Philomène, decidedly, “Daddy is out nearly all day, and though Nurse and Miss Mills are very kind and all that, they are neither of them any good at fairy things, or at plays, or at story-telling. It seems to me it is often very dull at home.”
“The very young,” remarked Sweet William, gazing into space, “and more particularly the young of the present day, are apt to condemn the place in which they live because they are themselves too stupid to find out its attractions. Do you follow me?”
“I can’t very well help following you,” said Philomène, almost losing her temper, “but if you lived at Sideview yourself, perhaps you would not find it so very amusing either. Even Daddy says it is an uninteresting little house, though of course I try to be contented so as to please him, but it is not at all so easy as you make out. It isn’t a bit like the ‘House of Surprises’ in the story-book.”
“A good many surprising things go on in it, notwithstanding,” retorted Sweet William, “as Master Mustardseed could very well tell you, if you only had the sense to listen to him a bit when you are alone together.”
“I’m afraid I don’t quite understand you about Master Mustardseed,” said Philomène, “why should I need to be alone with him specially?”