But not so with Cora, who watched their movements with angry eyes.
To the little boys, fresh from the tiny cot of poverty, the great house on Fifth Avenue was a wonderful Aladdin’s palace.
They gazed about them in round-eyed wonder, and as soon as the first sense of being company was over and they were left somewhat to their own devices, they began to explore the house, peeping into room after room with childish curiosity, mounting stairway after stairway, and wandering along broad, dark corridors, until they could not find their way back to the lower rooms where they had been left by Mrs. Dalrymple.
“I’m losted,” sobbed Willie, the six-year-old, digging his little fists into his tearful blue eyes.
“So am I,” cried Mark, who was older and more manly; “but don’t cry! Here’s another door! Let’s peep in here!” seizing the knob, and shaking it vigorously. But the lock refused to yield, and very suddenly he was caught by Cora Ellyson, who slapped his face till his ears tingled with pain.
CHAPTER XLI.
HAPPINESS SUPREME.
Cora’s eyes flashed, her lips and face went ashen white, her form trembled with passion, as, catching the boys by their shoulders, she shook both violently, screaming:
“You little meddlesome wretches, how dare you sneak around this way, poking your noses into things that are none of your business! Go away, and if I ever find either one of you up in this hall again, I will kill you both!”
The elder boy shook himself loose from her angry grasp and tried to rescue Willie, saying tearfully:
“We didn’t mean no harm, ma’am.”