‘All right, papa; but I am so hungry!—Oh, here is mamma. Doesn’t she look nice, papa, and so happy?’
When Eleanor entered the dingy room, her husband could not fail to notice the flush of hope and happiness on her face. He looked at her with expectation in his eyes.
‘Did you think mother was never coming, Nelly? and do you want your dinner, my child?’
‘You do look nice, ma,’ said the child admiringly. ‘You look as if you had found some day.’
Eleanor looked inquiringly at her husband, for him to explain the little one’s meaning.
‘Nelly and I have been having a metaphysical discussion,’ he said with playful gravity. ‘We have been discussing the virtues of the future. She is wishing for that impossible some day that people always expect.’
‘I don’t think she will be disappointed,’ said Mrs Seaton, with a fond little smile at her child. ‘I believe I have found it.—Edgar, I have been to see Mr Carver.’
‘I supposed it would have come to that. And he, I suppose, has been poisoned by the sorceress, and refused to see you?’
‘O no,’ said Eleanor playfully. ‘We had quite a long chat—in fact, he asked us all to dinner on Sunday.’
‘Wonderful! And he gave you a lot of good advice on the virtues of economy, and his blessing at parting.’