m-colored broadcloth; only by watching the
grooms' eyelids could one ascertain that they were flesh and blood.
Young girls, two, three, and four, cantered by; their linen habits rose
and fell decorously, their hair was smooth. Mounted policemen, glorious
in buttons, breathing out authority, curvetted past, and everywhere and
always the chug-chug-chug of the gleaming, fierce-eyed motor cars filled
one's ears. They darted past, flaming scarlet, somber olive, and livid
white; a crouching, masked figure intent at the wheel, veiled, shapeless
women behind, a whir of dust to show where they had been a breath
before.

And everywhere, as far as the eye could reach, a thin stream of white
and pink and blue, a tumbling river of curls and caps and bare legs,
were the children. A babble of shrill cries, of chattering laughter, of
fretful screams, an undercurrent of remonstrance, of soothing patience,
of angry threatening, marked their slow progress up and down the walk.

To Caroline, fresh from untrammeled sporting through neighborly suburban
yards, this disciplined procession, under the escort of Delia and the
General, was fascinating to a degree. Far from resenting the authority
she would have scorned at home, she derived an intense satisfaction from
it, and pranced ostentatiously beside the perambulator, mimicking Miss
Honey's unconscious reference to a higher power in the matter of
suitable crossings and preferred playfellows with the absorbed gravity
of the artist.

"See! General, see the wobblybubble," Delia murmured affectionately.
"(Will you see that child turn his head just like a grown person? Did
you ever see anything as smart as that?) Did he like the red one best?
So does Delia. We'll come over here, and then you won't get the sun in
your precious eyes. Do you want me to push you frontwards, so you can
see me? Just wait till we get across, and I will. Look out, Miss Honey!
Take hold of your cousin's hand and run across together, now, like good
girls."

Miss Honey made an obedient snatch at Caroline's apron strings, and
darted forward with a long roll of her skates. The road was clear for a
block. Delia, with a quick glance to left and right, lowered the
perambulator to the road level and forged ahead. Caroline, nose in air,
studied the nearest policeman curiously.

"Look out, there! _Look out!_"

A man's voice like a pistol shot crashed behind them. Caroline heard
quick steps and a woman's scream, and looked up