"For goodness' sake, Henry, come down from the clouds. This is your child's birthday. It is all very well to know all that musty stuff, but there are times when it is fifty times better to be full of nonsense."
Mr. Dale groaned, and then Lucy seemed to spring out of the ground. She laughed in his face, and cried out that she had found him.
So the merry game proceeded. It had nearly come to an end when Pauline and Penelope found themselves alone.
"I waited for you at twelve o'clock," said Penelope, "but you never comed. Why didn't you?"
"I didn't want to, Pen. I have changed my mind. Think no more about what I said."
But then she heard a whoop from a distant enemy, and darted to another part of the garden.
The game of hide-and-seek was followed by another, and then another and yet another, and the cries of mirth and laughter sounded all over the place. Even Betty forgot the tragic end of the Duke of Mauleverer-Wolverhampton, who was killed by a brigand in Italy while defending his fair duchess. Betty had been weeping scalding tears over the tragedy when the sound of mirth called her forth. John accompanied her, and the other servants looked on in the distance.
"There never was such a rowdy family," said Betty.
"Yes; and the very rowdiest is Miss Tredgold. For mercy's sake look at the way she runs! She's as fleet as a hare."
"She have very neat ankles," said John. "I call her a neat figure of a woman."
"Don't tell me," said Betty. "Much you know what a neat figure of a woman means. Miss Tredgold's a haristocrat. Now, if you'll believe me, she's the moral image of the duchess."
"The Duchess of Mauleverer-Wolverhampton--her that's just made a widow, and is crying her eyes out over the murdered remains of the poor dook."
"Sometimes," said John, "I think that you have gone off your head, Betty. But I can't stay to listen to any more of these nonsenses. I have my garden to look after."
The final delight before the curtain of that birthday was dropped down for ever found its vent in music--music in which Mr. Dale took a part, and in which Miss Tredgold excelled herself. It was the music that awoke Pauline's slumbering conscience. It was during that music that her heart truly began to understand itself.