some seconds. 'Now, Tommy, is Miss Limmer kind to you?'

The child's face became strangely set and blank; his eyes looking vacant.
'Miss Limmer is very kind to us. She loves us and we love her dearly.
Ask Batsy,' he said in a monotonous voice, as if he were repeating a
lesson. 'Batsy, come here,' he said in the same voice. 'Is Miss Limmer
kind to us?'

Batsy threw up her eyes--it was like a stage effect, 'We love Miss Limmer
dearly, and she loves us. She is very, very kind to us, like our dear
mamma.' Her voice was monotonous too. 'I never can say the last part,'
said Tommy. 'Batsy knows it; about dear mamma.'

'Indeed!' said Merton. 'Tommy, _why_ did you come here?'

'I don't know. I told you that None-so-pretty told us to. She did it
after she saw _that_ when we were bathing.' Tommy raised one of his
little loose breeks that did not cover the knee.

_That_ was not pleasant to look on: it was on the inside of the right
thigh.

'How did you get hurt _there_?' asked Merton.

The boy's monotonous chant began again: his eyes were fixed and blank as
before. 'I fell off a tree, and my leg hit a branch on the way down.'

'Curious accident,' said Merton; 'and None-so-pretty saw the mark?'

'Yes.'