out of cups! They'd forgotten about them. No, not really forgotten. That
was what their smile meant. They had decided to leave them there all by
themselves.

Suddenly Lottie gave such a piercing scream that all of them jumped off the
forms, all of them screamed too. "A face--a face looking!" shrieked
Lottie.

It was true, it was real. Pressed against the window was a pale face,
black eyes, a black beard.

"Grandma! Mother! Somebody!"

But they had not got to the door, tumbling over one another, before it
opened for Uncle Jonathan. He had come to take the little boys home.


Chapter 1.X.

He had meant to be there before, but in the front garden he had come upon
Linda walking up and down the grass, stopping to pick off a dead pink or
give a top-heavy carnation something to lean against, or to take a deep
breath of something, and then walking on again, with her little air of
remoteness. Over her white frock she wore a yellow, pink-fringed shawl
from the Chinaman's shop.

"Hallo, Jonathan!" called Linda. And Jonathan whipped off his shabby
panama, pressed it against his breast, dropped on one knee, and kissed
Linda's hand.