Part 11 (1/2)

”Has my father come back?” he asked. ”Have you heard from him? Are you taking me to him?”

Mrs. Warren gazed full at Ronald, and, quick as thought, she adopted his idea. Here would be a way--a delightful way--of getting the boy back to her dreadful house.

”Now, ain't I good?” she said. ”Don't I know wot a dear little boy wants? Yus, my love, ye're soon to be in the harms of yer dear parient.”

”But you said both parients,” interrupted Mrs. Cricket.

Mrs. Warren put up her finger to her lips. She had got the boy in her arms, and he found himself most unwillingly folded to her ample breast.

”Ain't one enough at a time?” was her most dubious remark. ”And now then, Ronald, hurry up with yer things, for Connie and me, we must be hoff. We could leave yer behind, ef yer so wished it, but Lunnun 'ud be a much more convenient place for yer to meet yer father.”

”Oh I'll go, I'll go!” said Ronald. ”My darling, darling father! Oh, I did think I'd never see him again! And he's quite well, Mrs. Warren?”

”In splendid, splendid health,” said Mrs. Warren. ”Niver did I lay eyes on so 'andsome a man.”

”And I'll see him to-night?” said Ronald.

”Yus--ef ye're quick.”

Then Ronald darted into the next room, and Mrs. Cricket followed him, and Connie and Mrs. Warren faced each other. Mrs. Warren began to laugh immoderately.

”Young and tender chuckens,” she said, ”an' chops an' new-laid heggs an'

milk. Wotever's the matter with yer, Connie?”

Connie answered timidly that she though Ronald a dear little boy, and very pretty, and that she hoped that he would soon get strong with the nouris.h.i.+ng food that Mrs. Warren was going to give him. But here that worthy woman winked in so mysterious and awful a manner that poor Connie felt as though she had received an electric shock. After a time she spoke again.

”I'm so glad about his father!” she said. ”His father was a hofficer in the harmy. Will he really see him to-night, Mrs. Warren?”

”Will the sky fall?” was Mrs. Warren's ambiguous answer. ”Once for all, Connie, you ax no questions an' you'll be told no lies.”

A very few moments afterwards Ronald came out of the little bedroom, prepared for his journey. Mrs. Cricket cried when she parted with him, but there were no tears in the boy's lovely eyes--he was all smiles and excitement.

”I'll bring my own, own father down to see you, Mrs. Cricket,” he said; ”maybe not to-morrow, but some day next week. For you've been very good to me, darling Mrs. Cricket.”

Then Mrs. Cricket kissed him and cried over him again, and the scene might have been prolonged if Mrs. Warren had not caught the boy roughly by the shoulder and pulled him away.

As they were marching down the tiny path which led from the cottage to the high-road, Mrs. Cricket did venture to say in an anxious voice:

”I s'pose as Major Harvey'll pay me the little money as I spended on the dear child?”

”That he will,” said Mrs. Warren. ”I'll see him to-night, most like, and I'll be sure to mention the chuckens and the chops.”

”Well then, good-bye again, darling,” said Mrs. Cricket. Ronald blew a kiss to her, and then, taking Connie's hand, they marched down the high-road in the direction of the railway station, Mrs. Warren trotting by their side, carrying the small bundle which contained Ronald's clothes all tied up neatly in a blue check handkerchief.

”Yer'll be sure to tell yer father wot a good nurse I were to you, Ronald,” she remarked as they found themselves alone in a third-cla.s.s carriage.

”You're quite sure it _was_ only a dream?” said Ronald then very earnestly.

”Wot do yer mean by that, chile?” inquired Mrs. Warren.

”I mean the dark room without any light, and the dreadful person who--who--flogged me, and--the hunger.”