Some few moments afterwards in the darkness Christine answered—
"You hadn't better make any remarks to Lal in public; you know he cautioned us about attracting a crowd."
"Crowd or no crowd, I mean to tell him what I think of him," asserted
Ridgwell before he turned over and went to sleep.
* * * * *
The clock in the hall was just chiming twelve, and Mr. Jollyface was taking his departure.
Father and Mother were wishing him good-night and thanking him for bringing the chocolate lion for Ridgwell.
"It is really quite remarkable how I came to buy it," agreed Mr. Jollyface; "but I was passing through Trafalgar Square when I remembered that I hadn't bought Ridgie a present, and the sight of the corner lion, as I crossed the Square, made me remember a sweetstuff model of him I had seen in a chocolate shop in the Strand, so I went and bought it. But really the most wonderful thing about it is the almost uncanny intelligence of your children. Bless my soul! they couldn't have known I had bought it; and yet, would you believe it, they actually expected a lion, and asked me if I had brought one with me."
"Yes," agreed Father, "it's very wonderful; they were trying to describe a lion before you came in. I think at times children must have second sight, and that is why I am afraid we sometimes do not understand them. Good-night, Jollyface; come and see us again soon."