“Some day I shall read ‘Tom Jones,’” said Clare to herself, “and I expect I shall like it as much as Mother does. But I shall read it in comfortable print, not in the edition that makes one say fowls for souls all through. O, there’s Miss Ridge. _I_ see her.” She threaded her way in and out of the company till she came to that bird-like person, Miss Ridge. She had the pale ribbon in her fawn-coloured hair, and the little shadows round her nose and the corners of her mouth, were just as exquisite in real life, as in the picture.
“Ring-a-ring a-roses A pocket full of posies,”
she was saying, holding Christopher and Bim by the hands. But Bim thought this childish, and asked her if she couldn’t sing “Bonnie Dundee.” “Sing ‘Bonnie Dundee’? I should think so; I can sing twenty ‘Bonnie Dundees.’ But what’s this caravan expedition on which you say you are going with your Mother? I’ll tell you! we’ll go for a walk one morning. I’ll take you to the Lock on the Stour, and we’ll have a pocket-lunch on the bit of green field where the big burdock-leaves grow. We’ll watch the boy opening the lock, and we’ll go and see Dedham Church, and pay a visit at the cottage, for I know the people, and you’ll be able to climb into the large pollards.”
MISS PRITCHARD. MRS. PRITCHARD. BARRY. FIELDING. QUIN. LAVINIA FENTON. THE GREEN ROOM AT DRURY LANE.]
“O, that would be lovely,” cried the children. They are not the sort of children who look you up and down, when you suggest a plan, but they are down your throat in a minute, so to say, and you are lucky if you can finish your sentence.
“Oh, yes.” “When?” “Let’s do it to-morrow!” “Can I take Pont?” “We’ll bathe, won’t we?” “Oh come and sit down.” “What are the people called who live in the cottage?” and so on, and so on--you can imagine it.
“Well, we’re going to start about the 15th of April,” said Bim in reply, “and Mummie and Clare are going to cook, and Christopher and I shall be armed, of course--two petronels, a pocket-knife, a musket, and bows and arrows.”
“I’ll come too,” said Miss Ridge. “I could sweep the van out. I shall be in nobody’s way, and whenever your Mother comes round the corner, I’ll jump into the nosebag.”
But now there was a general movement towards the door, and from among many people across the room, Mrs. Inchbald beckoned.