Higby caught his foot in his highly prized dressing-gown that he was carrying across his arm and stumbled against Titus’s heap of books. He sent them flying; then, to recover himself he clutched one of the maids, who shrieked with fright.
The Judge carefully examined the child’s face. Had she called up the spotted dog in a spirit of mischief? No, for there were tears in her eyes.
“You have frightened him away,” she said, sadly. “He has run outdoors. He may never come back,” and, sitting down, she buried her little face in her hands.
Higby tumbled out of the room. He believed that the spotted dog was there yet, hidden in some corner and waiting to bite him.
CHAPTER VI
In the Pigeon Loft
After lunch at half-past one, the Judge went to his study for a nap, but he could not sleep.
The face of the strange child was ever before him. He wondered what she was doing. Titus had taken her up to the attic to see his old toys and to choose some for herself. He would like to watch her expression as Titus exhibited his cast-off playthings. For her that attic would be a kind of treasure-house.
How like a mirror her face was, how different from his, even from Titus’s, for the boy, young as he was, had learned to conceal his emotions; and now what was he going to do with her?
With a sigh he got up, went into the hall and downstairs, put on a fur-lined coat and a fur cap, and was just about to go out when the two children came down the staircase, Titus not running as usual, but soberly walking beside his little companion.
Bethany’s eyes were shining. She had a clown doll under one arm, a trumpet under the other, and her hands were full of games—toy-dogs and horses, a Noah’s ark, and a little cart.