"You are a little cormorant: Grannie will give you nice tea when we get home. Put on your gloves, children, I shall go at once."
"Do come back with us, auntie," implored the boys. "Grannie wants you ever so much."
"Not more than I want her," returned Katherine. "How is she, Ada?"
"Oh, very well; just the same as usual. People who are not sensitive have a great deal to be thankful for. I feel quite upset by this encounter with your amiable relative, so I will say good-by."
"Oh, wait for me; I will come with you. Let me put on my hat and tell Mr. Liddell I am going out."
"Of course you must ask the master's leave!"
"Exactly," returned Katherine, good-humoredly. And she put on her hat and gloves.
"Well, I shall be glad of your guidance, for I hardly know my way back to where the omnibus starts. Such a horrible low part of the town for a man of fortune to live in! I wonder what Colonel Ormonde would say to it?"
"I am sure I don't know," returned Kate, laughing. "Now come downstairs. If you go on I will speak to my uncle, and follow you."
"I am sorry you have been annoyed," said Katherine, when having tapped at the door, Mr. Liddell desired her to "come in." He was standing at an old-fashioned bureau, the front of which let down to form a writing-desk and enclosed a number of various-sized drawers. He had taken out several packets of paper neatly tied with red tape and seemed to be rearranging them.