“Oh papa!” screamed Harry, “Lilly’s been out an’ found her mother!”
“No, it’s not—it’s her gan-muver,” shrieked Dolly.
“Yes, an’ Dr Mellon’s going to marry her,” cried Jenny.
“Who?—the grandmother?” asked the doctor, with a surprised look.
“No—Lilly,” they all cried, with a shout of laughter, which Jack checked by stoutly asserting that it was her great-grandmother that Lilly had found. This drew an emphatic, “No, it’s not,” from Job, and a firmly reiterated assertion that it was “only her gan-muver” from Dolly.
“But Robin said so,” cried Jack.
“No, he didn’t,” said Job.
“Yes, he did,” cried Harry.
“Robin said she’s found ’er gan-muver,” said Dolly.
“I’ll go an’ ask him,” cried Jenny, and turning round, she rushed out of the room. The others faced about, as one child, and the tempest swept back into the lobby, moderated to a gale on the staircase, and was reduced to a breeze—afterwards to a temporary calm—overhead.