"Well, please to remember you are in London now!"
Miss Kezia turned and marched up the stairs.
"'The Queen turned tail and up she went,
Her subjects then their clothes did rent!'"
chuckled Nell, and sank down laughing on to a hall chair.
The Atom disappeared in the direction of her Pearl. It was a cherished conviction, on her part (and on no one else's), that the Pearl moped in her absence.
"Where's that boy Denis, I wonder?" Nell ran up stairs two at a time.
In the Stronghold she found a torn slip of paper on the table: "Off to Lancaster's to dine. Who sneaked my nail-brush?"
"Molly, was it you?"
"Oh, yes, I meant to put it back. Mine tumbled into the slop-pail full of dirty water."
Nell wandered into Denis's room.