I shall always fall back on you, if I want anything."
"That is right," said Allen, clearing up a good deal as she looked up
brightly in his face. "You promise me."
"Of course I do," she said smiling. "I'm not proud."
"And you did make Armine consent to our paying those expenses of his.
That was good of you, but the boy only does it out of obedience."
"Yes, he would like a little bit of self-willed penance, but it is
much better for him to submit, bodily and mentally."
"Elvira has asked me whether we can't, after all, build the Church
and all the rest which he wanted so much, and give it to him."
Caroline smiled, she would not vex Allen by saying how this was
merely in the spirit of the story book, endowing everybody with what
they wanted, but she said, "Build by all means, and endow, when you
have had time to see what is needed, and what is good for the people,
but not for Armine's sake, you know. He had much better serve his
apprenticeship and learn his work somewhere else. He would tell you
so himself."
"I daresay. He would talk of the touch of Midas again. Elvira will
be sadly disappointed. She had some fancy of presenting him to it as
soon as he was ordained!"
"Getting the fairies meantime to build the whole concern in secret?
Dear Elfie, her plans are generous and kind.
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