Mrs. Saville looked round the table, caught an expressive grimace going the round of three boyish faces, and raised her eyebrows inquiringly.
"Yes? Whatever you like best, of course. It is all the same to me. But would the violin be a pleasure to all! What about the boys?"
"They would hear me play! The pieces would sound nicer. They would like to hear them."
"Ahem!" coughed Maxwell loudly; and at that there was a universal shriek of merriment. Peggy's clear "Ho! ho!" rang out above the rest, and her mother looked at her with sparkling eyes. Yes, yes, yes; the child was happy! She had settled down already into the cheery, wholesome home-life of the vicarage, and was in her element among these merry boys and girls! She hugged the thought to her heart, finding in it her truest comfort. The laughter lasted several minutes, and broke out intermittently from time to time as that eloquent cough recurred to memory, but after all it was Mellicent who was the one to give the best suggestion.
"Well, then, a—a what-do-you-call-it!" she cried. "A thing-um-me-bob! One of those three-legged things for taking photographs! The boys look so silly sometimes, rolling about together in the garden, and we have often and often said, 'Don't you wish we could take their photographs! They would look frights!' We could have ever so much fun with a what-do-you-call-it."
"Ah, that's something like!" "Good business." "Oh, wouldn't it be sweet!" came the quick exclamations, and Mrs. Saville looked most pleased and excited of all.
"A camera!" she cried. "What a charming idea. Then you would be able to take photographs of Peggy and the whole household, and send them out for me to see. How delightful! Why, that's a happy thought, Mellicent. I am so grateful to you for thinking of it, dear. I'll buy a really good, large one, and all the necessary materials, and send them down at once. Do any of you know how to set to work?"
"I do, Mrs. Saville," Oswald said. "I had a small camera of my own, but it got smashed some years ago. I can show them how to begin, and we will take lots of photographs of Peggy for you, in groups and by herself. They mayn't be very good at first, but you will be interested to see her in different positions. We will take her walking, and bicycling, and sitting in the garden, and every way we can think of——"
"And whenever she has a new dress, or hat, so that you may know what they are like," added Mellicent anxiously. "Are her hats going to be the same as ours, or is she to choose them for herself?"
"She may choose them for herself, subject, of course, to your mother's refraining influence. If she were to develop a fondness for scarlet feathers, for instance, I think Mrs. Asplin should interfere; but Peggy has good taste. I don't think she will go far wrong," said her mother, looking at her fondly; and the little white face quivered before it broke into its sunny, answering smile.