our hands!" she said, in her ordinary brusque manner. I was
in terror lest we should be shown to the door. But the freemasonry of
work, the knowledge of things feminine, the fine little nod of
appreciation at a detail which is perfectly lost on a man, the flush of
answering approbation had done their perfect work between the old woman
and the girl.

Such things were not within my ken, and my grandmother promptly banished
me. She set down the little baronet at the same time with a "Run and
play, my doo!" She issued directions for me to charge myself with the
responsibility. I would much rather have stayed to hear what grandmother
and Miss Irma had to say one to the other, because I was more interested
in that. But the choice was not given to me. Go I must.

And with her first personal word of acknowledgment that I was a human
being, Miss Irma, calling me by name, indicated the "drawing-room" as
the place where we might await the end of this first congress of the
Holy Alliance.

I was some little alarmed at the place, the name of which so far I had
only seen in books, but little Sir Louis whispered in my ear as he took
my hand, "We can play there. That's only what sister Irma calls it!"

When my grandmother and Miss Irma appeared after an absence of
half-an-hour they found the two of us deep in a game of bat-ball. I made
an attempt to hide the ball, fearing lest Miss Irma might think I
usually carried such things about with me (I had confiscated it in class
that day). But I need not have troubled, she paid no attention whatever
to me, continuing to hold my grandmother's hand and look into the wise,
stormy, tender, emphatic, much-enduring old face. And I wondered at my
relative, and saw in this marvel one more proof of her own
infallibility.

"You must not stay any longer in this great house alone," she was
saying, "I will send you--somebody."

Then she looked again at Miss Irma's hands, and though I did not see
why, nor understand at the time, she added, "No--no--it will never
do--never do!" I wish I could say that on this first occasion of our
meeting, Miss Irma devoted a little of her attention to me. But the
truth is, she had eyes for nobody but Mistress Mary Lyon of
Heathknowes. True, a glance occasionally came my way, which caused me
instinctively to straighten myself up and square my shoulders, as I did
in the playground when acting as drill sergeant to the juniors. But the
very same glance with quite as much