enly became shyly silent,
perhaps feeling that he was premature in referring thus early to a visit
of his family to Chorlton-under-Bradbury. It would have been better
taste to wait, he thought.

However, no offence seemed to be taken. Uncle Mo said: "Oh, _that_ was
it--was it? I hope the bull had a ring on his nose." Dave appeared
doubtful, with a wish to assent. Then Aunt M'riar, who--however good she
was--certainly had a commonplace mind, must needs say she hoped Dave had
been a very good little boy. The banality of it!

Dave felt that an effort should be made to save the conversation. The
bull's nose and its ring suggested a line to go on. "The lady," said he
decisively, "had rings on her fingers. Dimings and pearls and
scrapphires"--he took this very striking word by storm--"and she giv'
'em me for to hold one at a time.... Yorce she did!" He felt sure of his
facts, and that the lady's rings on her fingers made her a legitimate
and natural corollary to a bull with one on its nose.

"The lady would be my Cousin Philippa," said Sister Nora. "She's always
figged up to the nines. Dave took her for a drive in the
carriage--didn't you, Dave?" There was misrepresentation in this, but a
way grown-up people have of understanding each other over the heads of
little boys prevented the growth of false impressions. Uncle Mo and Aunt
M'riar quite understood, somehow, that it was the lady that had taken
Dave for a drive. Dave allowed this convention to pass without notice,
merely nodding. He reserved criticism for the days to come, when he
should have a wider vocabulary at command.

Then Sister Nora had gone, and Dave was having his first experience of
the shattered ideal. Sapps Court was neither so large nor so
distinguished as the conception of it that he had carried away into the
country with him; with the details of which he had endeavoured to
impress Granny Marrable and the ogress. Dolly was not so large as he had
expected to find her; but then he had had that expectation owing to a
message, which had reached him in his absence, that she was growing out
of all knowledge. His visit was inside three months; so this was absurd.
One really should be careful what one says to six-year-olds. The image
of Dolly that Dave brought back from the provinces nearly filled up the
Sapps Court memory supplied. It was just the same shape as Dolly, but on
a much larger scale. The reality he came back to was small and compact,
but not so inf