'Acts as if she belonged here, doesn't she?' Frank said to his wife, who
did not reply, so intent was she upon watching the strange child, who
deliberately took off her cloak and hood and tossing them upon the
floor, drew a small low chair to the fire, and climbing into it, sat
down as composedly as if she were mistress there instead of an intruder.
Once she swept the hair back from her forehead with the motion Frank
knew so well, and then the lump came into his throat again, and he
steadied himself against the mantel, while he looked curiously at the
young girl, making herself so much at home and seeming so well pleased
with her surroundings.
'Take her to the nursery now. I must see to that coroner,' he said to
his wife, adding: 'Harold must go too, or there will be the Old Harry to
pay.'
''Ess, 'ess,' came decidedly from the child, who went willingly with
Harold, and was soon ushered into the large upper room, which was used
as both nursery and school-room, for Mrs. Tracy could not allow her two
sons, Tom and Jack, to come in contact with the boys at school; so she
kept a governess, a middle-aged spinster, who, glad of a home, and the
rather liberal compensation, sat all day in the nursery and bore
patiently with Tom's freaks and Jack's dullness: to say nothing of the
trouble it was to have the three-year-old Maude toddling about and
interfering with everything.
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