“There, miss, he’s only a puppy.”
“But think of our responsibilities!”
“I wouldn’t give tuppence for a boy or a puppy as had no mischief in him, miss!”
“But think of the whackings afterwards.”
“I don’t think it does no harm. I’ve no sympathy with the mollycoddles. I do hold with a boy getting a good tanning regular. If he deserves it, it’s all right. If he’s too goody to deserve it, he ought to get it for not deserving of it.”
Eve laughed, and Mrs. Baxter put the tea-pot and a dish of sardines on toast on the table. She was a local product, and an excellent one at that, and being a widow, had been glad of a home.
“I’ve made you the China tea, miss. And the telephone man, he wants to know when he can come and fix the hinstrument.”
“Any time this morning.”
“Thank you, miss.”
The panelled room was full of warm, yellow light, and Eve sat down at the gate-legged table with a sense of organic and spiritual well being. There were roses on the table, and her sensitive mouth smiled at them expressively. In one corner stood her easel, an old mahogany bureau held her painting kit, palettes, brushes, tubes, boards, canvases. It was delightful to think that she could put on her sun-hat, wander out into the great gardens, and express herself in all the colours that she loved. Lynette’s glowing head would come dancing to her in the sunlight. The Wilderness was still a fairy world, where mortals dreamed dreams.