However, nothing could be more snug and merry than the mother and
daughter when left together, for they were like two sisters and
suited one another perfectly. Babie was disappointed that London
would not look emptier even in the fashionable squares, which she
insisted on exploring in search of solitude. They made little gay
outings in a joyous spirit of adventure, getting up early and going
by train to some little station, with an adjacent expanse of wood or
heather, whence they came home with their luncheon basket full of
flowers, wherewith to gladden Mrs. Lucas's eyes, and those of Mother
Carey's district. They prepared their surprises too. Several
hopelessly dingy panels were painted black and adorned with stately
lilies and irises, with proud reed-maces, and twining honeysuckle,
and bryony, fluttered over by dragon-flies and butterflies, from the
brush of mother and daughter. The stores from Belforest further
supplied hangings for brackets, and coverings for cushions, under the
dainty fingers of the Infanta, who had far more of the household
fairy about her than had her mother, perhaps from having grown up in
a home instead of a school, and besides, from being bent on having
the old house a delightsome place.
Indeed her mother was really happier than for many years, for the
sense of failing in her husband's charge had left her since she had
seen Jock by his own free will on the road to the quest, and likely
also to fulfil the moral, as well as the scientific, conditions
attached to it.
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