"
"I don't think you could, my dear."
"Not at first. It seems to me like having been in a whirlpool, and
those two went down in it." She put her hands to her temples. "But
I must do it all now, and I will. I'll get up now. Oh! dear, if
they only would let me come down and go about quietly." Then smiling
a piteous smile. "It is very naughty, but of all things I dread the
being cried over and fondled by Ellen!"
Mrs. Lucas shook her head, though the tears were in her eyes, and
bethought her whether she could caution Mrs. Robert Brownlow not to
be too demonstrative; but it was a delicate matter in which to
interfere, and after all, whatever she might think beforehand,
Caroline might miss these tokens of feeling.
She had sat up for some hours the evening before, so that there was
no fear of her not being strong enough to get up as she proposed; but
how would it be when she left her room, and beheld all that she could
not have realised?
However, matters turned out contrary to all expectation. Mrs. Lucas
was in the drawing-room, talking to the Colonel's wife, and Janet up
stairs helping her mother to dress, when there was a sound of feet on
the stairs, the door hastily opened for a moment, and two rough-
headed, dusty little figures were seen for one moment, startling Mrs.
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