42 IDLEHURST : 



wouldn't be allowed to dance when he was a grown- 

 up cow ; and Zero signified unchanged devotion by 

 a long-drawn grunting sigh, half-choked by the arm 

 round his neck. Then we came upon a rabbit-hutch, 

 where no rabbit-hutch used to be, some private 

 concern of the boot-boy's, containing a Himalayan 

 mamma and a small family ; and I found myself 

 forgotten while Alice hauled out the litter by their 

 ears, each diviner than the last, and Zero looked up 

 with trembling tail which meant that he loved Alice 

 even more than them. 



At this point arrived Mrs. Lydia, in chase of her 

 niece ; and I turned back to the garden with her, 

 leaving Alice to her new friends. Mrs. Lydia has no 

 children of her own now, and spends all upon the 

 child of her sister in India. If strong devotion mixed 

 with the rarest kind of serene wisdom can do anything 

 to shape the growing life, little Alice should one day 

 be a princess of the right fairy-tale line. The Rectory 

 rearing, together with her own inheritances, already 

 seems to show itself. I see Mrs. Lydia often watch- 

 ing the child with a kind of soft prophetic smile, 

 noting the little ways of manner and carriage, the 

 clear truth looking from the eyes, the fine scornful 

 anger of the mouth and chin. 



As we pace the walks, we talk about Alice, as 



