glided back again frightened and ashamed at her own act. Now he woke up; she felt his dark eyes looking at her. Then he spoke in a slow, puzzled voice, saying: “I have had such a funny dream. I dreamed that a spirit came and kissed me. I did not see it, but I think it must have been my mother’s.” “Why?” asked Isobel. “Because no one else ever cared enough for me to kiss me, except Mrs. Parsons, and she has given it up now that the other boys are here.” “Does not your father kiss you?” she asked. “Yes, once a week, on Sunday evening when I go to bed. But I don’t count that.” “No, I understand,” said Isobel, thinking of her own father, then added hastily, “it must be sad not to have a mother.” “It is,” he answered, “especially when one is ill as I have been, and must lie so long in bed with pains in the head. You know I had an abscess in the ear and it hurt very much.” “I didn’t know. We heard you were ill and mother wanted to come to see you. Father wouldn’t let her. He thought it might be measles and he is afraid of catching things.” “Yes,” replied Godfrey without surprise. “It wasn’t measles, but if it had been you might have caught them, so of course he was right to be careful.” “Oh! he wasn’t thinking of me or Mummy, he was thinking of himself,” blurted out Isobel with the candour of youth. “Big, strong men don’t catch measles,” said Godfrey in mild astonishment. “He says they do, and that they are very dangerous when you are grown up. Why are you alone here, and what are you working at?” “My father has kept me in as a punishment because I did my sums wrong. The other boys have gone out bird-nesting, but I have to stop here until I get them right. I don’t know when that will be,” he added with a sigh, “as I hate rule of three and can’t do it.” “Rule of three,” said Isobel, “I’m quite good at it. You see I like figures. My father says it is the family business instinct. Here, let me try. Move to the other side of that big chair, there’s plenty of room for two, and show it to me.”
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