"You look completely unlike yourself, Penelope. What is the matter?"
"I want to be a true, kind lady," said the little girl. "I am gathering grasses for my aunty; so I are."
"What a pretty, neat, orderly little girl Penelope has become!" said Mr. Dale. "But---- You really must excuse me, my dear girls. You are most charming, all of you. Ah, my dears!--so fresh, so unsophisticated, so--yes, that is the word--so unworldly. But I must get back to my beloved Virgil. You don't know--you can never know--what a moment of triumph is mine. You must excuse me, darlings--Verena, you are nearly grown up; you will see to the others. Do what you can to make them happy--a little treat if necessary; I should not mind it."
"Give us fourpence to buy a pound of golden syrup for tea, please, Padre," suddenly said Briar. "If there is a thing I love, it is golden syrup. A pound between us will give us quite a feast--won't it, Renny?"
"Only we must save a little for the aunt," cried Patty.
"I do hope one thing," said Pauline: "that, whatever her faults, she won't be greedy. There isn't room for any one to be greedy in this house. The law of this house is the law of self-denial; isn't it, Padre?"
"I begin to perceive that it is, Pauline. But whom are you talking of?"
"Now, Padre," said Verena, "if you don't wake and rouse yourself, and act like a decent Christian, you'll be just prodded--you'll be just shaken. We will do it. There are eight of us, and we'll make your life a burden."
"Eh--eh!" said Mr. Dale. "Really, girls, you are enough to startle a man. And you say----"
"I say, Paddy, that Miss Sophia Tredgold is on her way here. Each instant she is coming nearer. She is coming in the old pony cart, and the old pony is struggling with all his might to convey her here. She is coming with her luggage, intending to stay, and our object is to get her to go away again. Do you hear, Padre?"
"Yes, my dear, I hear. I comprehend. It takes a great deal to bring a man back down the ages--down--down to this small, poor, parsimonious life; it takes a great deal. A man is not easily roused, nor brought back; but I am back now, darlings.--Excuse me, Briar; no more prodding.--Hands off, Pauline.--Hands off, Patty. Perhaps I had better tidy myself."
