en window, towards
the eucalyptus grove behind the house. "You come right along with me,"
he repeated, holding her firmly for she was very wobbly on her feet,
"and we'll tell each other all about the things we're not minding. Do
you remember when the _St. Luke_ left Liverpool? You thought I thought
you were minding things then, and were very angry with me. We've made
friends since, haven't we, and we aren't going to mind anything ever
again except each other."

But he hardly knew what he was saying, so great was his concern and
distress.

Anna-Rose went blindly. She stumbled along, helped by him, clutching the
cat. She couldn't see out of her swollen eyes. Her foot caught in a
root, and the cat, who had for some minutes past been thoroughly uneasy,
became panic-stricken and struggled out of her arms, and fled into the
wood. She tried to stop it, but it would go. For some reason this broke
down her self-control. The warm cat clutched to her breast had at least
been something living to hold on to. Now the very cat had gone. Her
pride collapsed, and she tumbled against Mr. Twist's arm and just
sobbed.

If ever a man felt like a mother it was Mr. Twist at that moment. He
promptly sat her down on the grass. "There now--there, there now," he
said, whipping out his handkerchief and anxiously mopping up her face.
"This is what I did on the _St. Luke_--do you remember?--there now--that
time you told me about your mother--it looks like being my permanent
job--there, there now--don't now--you'll have no little eyes left soon
if you go on like this--"

"Oh but--oh but--Co-Columbus--"

"Yes, yes I know all about Columbus. Don't you worry about her. She's
all right. She's all right in the office at this moment, and we're all
right out here if only you knew it, if only you wouldn't cry such
quantities. It beats me where it all comes from, and you so
little--there, there now--"

"Oh but--oh but Columbus--"

"Yes, yes, I know--you're worrying yourself sick because you think
you're responsible for her to your aunt and uncle, but you won't be, you
know, once she's married--there, there now--"

"Oh but--oh but--"

"Now don't--now please--yes, yes, I know--he's a stranger, and you
haven't seen him yet, but everybody was a stranger once," said Mr.
Twist, quoting Anna-Felicitas's own argument, the one that had
especially irritated him half-an-hour before, "and he's real good--I'm
sure of it. And you'll be sure too the minute you