"I'm sure Maggie is always nice. Our mother always says she is quite a pattern, and we like her in any frock. Please let her come."
"But I shouldn't like her to go as she is, thank you all the same," said Mrs. Livesey, with decision.
"When she gets a new hat and frock may she come?" said Alice; and Mrs. Livesey, feeling that the promise might be safely made, answered, "Yes."
The children had to go, or they would be late for school, and they said "good-bye" with considerable cheerfulness, feeling that something had been gained. The time must come even for Maggie to have new clothes, though she made hers last a very long while. It was only consent deferred, and children are very hopeful.
But to Maggie this promise and the sound of the door closing behind her friends were as the death-knell to all her hopes. The child was far above a ragged school, and, it seemed, as far below a regular Sunday school. There was no place just right for Maggie.
In the afternoon, Adam fulfilled the whispered promise made to the child on the day before. He took her out with him, "all by herself, except baby."
Something, he could hardly tell what, attracted him towards Aqueduct Street, and he thought he would just pass the Mission Room, since he could go that way to the park. But, when he would have joined a little group that were hanging round the door, Maggie loudly protested against losing any more time.
"You've come the longest way," she said, "and I don't want to stop here, father."
So, in obedience to the childish hand which drew him, Adam went off towards the park, rather glad, after all, that there was no familiar face amongst the people at the door of the Mission Room.
The Sunday was soon over, and the working week had begun. Adam Livesey's cottage was too far from Rutherford's to allow of his coming home to breakfast, so he took it in the smithy, boiling the water for his tea at one of the hearths. He was in the midst of the meal when he saw the round face of his eldest boy, who was plainly in search of his father. The eager excited look of the child told that something unusual must have occurred.