"
"What is that verse you are saying, Lina?" said her mother.
Lina trotted across and repeated it, while Cecil shook his head at
wicked Babie.
"I hope you don't learn nursery rhymes, about phantoms and ghosts,
Lina?" said Mrs. Robert Brownlow.
"This is an original poem, Aunt Ellen," replied Babie, gravely.
"More original than practical," said John. "You haven't accounted
for the pronoun?"
"Oh, never mind that. Great poets are above rules. I want Essie to
promise us bridesmaids blackcock tails in our hats."
"My dear!" said her aunt, in serious reproof, shocked at the rapidity
of the young lady's ideas.
"Or, at least," added Babie, "if she won't, you'll give us blackcock
lockets, Cecil. They would be lovely-—you know-—enamelled!"
"That I will!" he cried. "And, Mother Carey, will you model me a
group of the birds? That would be a jolly present!"
"Better than Esther's head, eh? I have done that three times, and
you shall choose one, Cecil."
Nothing would serve Cecil but an immediate expedition to the studio,
to choose as well as they could by lamp-light.
And during the examination, Mrs. Evelyn managed to say to Caroline,
"I'm quite satisfied. She is as bright and childish as you told me."
"Essie?"
"No, the Infanta.
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