Me and Nobbles Part 26

'I'm sure Master Bobby won't be the bridegroom,' said Margot.

'No, she said a page,' corrected Bobby. 'What's that, Margot? I thought it was a leaf of a book.'

'We shall be all in white,' said True.

'Like angels,' said Bobby.

And so they chattered on, the only regret being the absence of their father.

The next day they had another excitement. They went to tea with Miss Robsart.

For some time past they had looked forward to this, and truth to tell, Miss Robsart was quite as eager as they were for the treat.

She called for them at four o'clock, and they walked to the house in which she and her sister lodged. It was a quiet little street leading out of Kensington High Street. She took them upstairs to a very pretty sitting-room with three large windows in it, one of which was filled with flowers and plants. By the fireside in an invalid chair was Miss Robsart's sister. The children felt shy of her at first, but she had such a bright smile and voice that they soon became at ease with her.

'I have heard so much about you from my little sister Daisy that I feel I know you already. Do you wonder that I call her little? I am ten years older than she is, and she always seems a little girl to me.'

'Now Kathleen, respect my office, and don't be giving me away to my pupils. Bobby, show my sister your wonderful n.o.bbles, and tell her about him while I get tea ready.'

True was looking with admiring eyes round the room. On the walls hung numbers of beautiful water-colour sketches; there was a piano, two little love birds in a cage, some old carved furniture, and numbers of pretty foreign curiosities.

'I wish we had a room like this,' she said admiringly.

'Ah! but you see this is our own furniture, and that makes such a difference,' said their Miss Robsart. 'We took two unfurnished rooms and put our own furniture into them, so of course it looks homey. And all those pretty pictures were painted by my sister. Before she met with her accident she used to go down to the country and sketch. She longs to do it now, but we cannot manage it. Now would you like to help me get out some cakes and jam from that cupboard for tea?'

True was only too delighted to do something. Whilst Bobby chatted with the elder sister she helped the younger to lay the tea.

And then Miss Robsart was wheeled in her chair to the table, and Bobby and True began to enjoy the jam and cakes provided for them. They talked a good deal about Mr. Egerton and Lady Isobel, and the eldest Miss Robsart asked Bobby about his grandmother's house in the country.

'What a happy little boy you must have been,' she said, 'to have enjoyed a country life! I used to live in the country when I was a little girl, and I have never forgotten it.'

'Why don't you live in the country now?' asked True.

'Ah!' said Daisy, 'we mean to one day, when our ship comes in. If only that time would come soon! And then, Kathleen, you would be able to make some sketches again, and get a sale for them!'

Her sister laughed.

'People would say I could sketch in London if I chose, and perhaps if I were not such a cripple I could.'

'I've seed a cripple do lovelly picshers on the path,' said Bobby eagerly; 'he did them all in red and blue and yellow! How did you get a cripple?'

Daisy looked at her sister anxiously, but she smiled at her.

'I was run over by an omnibus only four years ago, Bobby. It was a frosty day, and I was crossing the road in a hurry and slipped under the horses' feet. I don't think I could sit on the pavement and paint pictures, so I must hope that some day I may be able to get to my beloved hills and trees and water again. Those are what I paint best, and I cannot get them in London.'

'Lady Is'bel can paint picshers of gates and angels and heaven,' said Bobby.

And then he began to describe the golden gates, and Miss Robsart listened with amused interest. After tea they had games of different sorts, and then at seven o'clock they were taken home, having thoroughly enjoyed themselves.

When Mr. Allonby returned to them a few days later there was a great deal to tell him. He took the children more than once to see Lady Isobel at her hotel, and Mr. Egerton got into the way of coming round in the evening to have a smoke with him. Bobby and True thought this winter was a delightful time altogether, and when the wedding-day drew near they could hardly contain themselves for excitement.

It was to be a very quiet one, and the guests were few in number. Miss Robsart was to be one of them. Lady Isobel had met her by this time and took a great liking to her; she went to see her sister, not once only, but a good many times, and when she came round to see Bobby and True the day before the wedding, she said to them, 'Do you know I have my head full of plans for you all? I will not tell you now, but perhaps when the spring comes you shall hear.'

'Father is going away from us in the spring,' said Bobby sorrowfully.

Then a twinkle came into his brown eyes: 'Me and n.o.bbles makes up plans too in bed; we runned after father once, we hided from him in his motor, and then he had to keep us.'

'Yes, but you aren't going to do that again,' said True, looking at him severely. 'Dad is going across the sea; you couldn't follow him there.'

'I could follow him anywheres!' said Bobby earnestly.

'Ah! but you wouldn't like to displease your father by doing so,' said Lady Isobel. 'He wants you to stay at home and learn as fast as you can, and grow as fast as you can. And then when you get quite big and clever you will be able to go about with him.'

'Mother said I was to be his kerpanion,' said Bobby. 'I don't want to go to school.'

'Ah! my plan is better than school,' said Lady Isobel.

She would say no more, and Mr. Egerton, happening to come into the room and hear her, turned the whole thing into a joke at once.

'Yes, Bobby, I'll whisper some of her plans for you. She is going to start a school on new principles. It's a school for grown-ups; you are to be the schoolmaster and True the mistress. You will have to teach the old men how to slide banisters and play hide-and-seek. There will be a cla.s.s for those who don't know how to make up stories in bed; they must be taught how to do it. Another cla.s.s will have to learn how to see robbers and Indians when it's getting dusk. It only needs a little explanation and then it is quite easy. True will have to teach the fine ladies to make daisy-chains and drink tea out of thimbles. There is a lot that grown-ups have learnt and forgotten, and a lot they have never learnt at all. And of course n.o.bbles will give them a rap over the knuckles for every mistake they make.'

Bobby laughed delightedly.

'Go on! Tell us more!'

'I can't. My brain is so frightened at all it has to do to-morrow that it has stopped working. I want to give it a rest to-day, poor thing.

It is never very bright. You ask Lady Isobel what she feels like.'

'What do you feel like?' asked Bobby promptly, turning to her.

'Very much inclined to shut myself in my room and not come to church at all to-morrow,' she replied with sparkling eyes and flushed cheeks.

Mr. Egerton shook his head at her.

'If you play me false,' he said, 'Bobby will have to fill his bath full of water, and I will come and drown myself in it!'

'Do!' cried True; 'and then we will take you out and hang you up to dry!'

'We won't be too silly,' said Lady Isobel.

'And a wedding is a very solemn thing, isn't it?' said Bobby. 'Mrs.

Dodd telled Margot that she cried more at weddings than funerals.'

'I shan't cry,' said True, 'because I would spoil my white frock.'

She was delighted with her white costume, which Lady Isobel had insisted upon providing. Margot at first shook her head over it.

''Tis too soon after the dear mistress's death to put off her black,'

she said; but True had retorted instantly: