“ The Stronghold greeted them with a great, glowing fire, before which Jim O'Driscoll sat eating a biscuit; the table glimmered in its light, set out with a special daintiness; poor Sarah also was doing her best to obliterate memories. There was a raid on the kitchen for forks; a hustling and pushing for places at the fire in the Stronghold. Ted pushed and hustled Denis with all his strength, but his politeness stood in his way with the others. There was a food deal of noise and a good many tumbles as they fought and elbowed each other, and of course Molly's kipper fell into the fire. ”

“ She felt a touch on her arm. Through the yellowing fog Ted smiled at her.
"I say, Nell, I can't stand it! You'd be on my conscience. You know you don't know your way about a bit, and if the fog comes down—"
She began to smile warmly.
"Since Denis has deserted you," cheerfully he blundered, "you'll let me order you about, eh?"
The "eh" held a suddenly surprised inflection, brought about by the change in her face.
"You're downright impertinent!" she stormed. "Do go away! How can you thrust yourself where you're not wanted?" ”

“ She knew that tone. She frowned and bit her lip, but rather than make more fuss, she gave in.
"No one's cut any bread," observed Molly.
Ted seized the loaf. Nell glanced at him, saw his face was red and puzzled, looked at the loaf, which wore a somewhat grimy and cindery appearance, leant forward, and gave it a squeeze. Then suddenly she began to laugh and laugh: "Oh—it's an experiment!" she gasped. "I'm—afraid—it isn't—a success!"
Ted was smiling amusedly.
Denis seized the loaf.
"Great Scott, it's as hard as stone! Shake her, Ted, shake the explanation out of her!" ”

“ Sheila Pat had not been known to cry since her babyhood. She scorned tears; no physical hurt could break down her sturdy self-control. In those last days she was often a ludicrous Atom. Grave, self-contained, her pig-tail immaculate, she would emerge from the burying-ground, facing the world with a brave little countenance and all unaware that it was adorned with patches and streaks of dirt.
The pig-tail was generally crooked, but that was merely because Sheila Pat invariably plaited it herself. No one would do it for her ”

“ Nell, twinkling over the contrast between Mrs. Jones's fierce words and herself, a meek little thin woman with watery blue eyes and no control over even her baby, gravely declared she did see, and then hurried up to the Stronghold again.
"It really looks charming!" she said, standing on the threshold and looking round the little, overcrowded room, with its pictures, its books, its various treasures, its photographs, a good many of them in beautifully carved Irish bog-oak frames, its two bronze jars with pink chrysanthemums in them, its collection of bog-oak pigs of all sizes. ”

“ Nell saw her shiver.
"Come on, then, Atom," Denis picked her up again. "I'll carry you up."
The small arms went with sudden desperate clinging round his neck; Sheila Pat pressed her cheek hard into his.
"She must be punished," said Miss Kezia. "She has been wandering about alone for more than three hours."
"We'll see about that to-morrow," Denis said.
Nell went towards the kitchen.
"Where are you going, Eileen?"
"To make her some hot bread and milk."
"It is perfectly absurd the way you none seem to think she should be punished—"
"I shall make her promise never to go out alone again." ”

“ The joy in Sheila Pat's shout was the finishing touch to Miss Kezia's wrath. It fairly blazed forth; she excelled herself. Her audience consisted chiefly of Sarah, still weeping; Molly, also weeping; and the wise-faced monkey, who sat in Denis's coat collar and listened with sad attention. For the rest Denis and Nell and the Atom appeared and disappeared at intervals in pursuit of the puppy, the cat, and the mice. Miss Kezia's peroration was eloquent; wrath lent it fire. ”

“ Nell had told her that the baby's name was James O'Driscoll, that she did not know where his people were, but would take him to some friends of his.
Miss Kezia had been a good deal worried. For several days she scrutinised her relatives' countenances, dreading to find them flushed or spotted. But the weeks slipped by and not a spot appeared; not one face was unduly flushed. Then the 9th of May dawned. It was a beautiful 9th of May; the hilarity of these spring days was mixed with a great restlessness; no one could settle down to anything. ”

“ Nell looked at her.
"If you say another word, Molly O'Brien, I shall yell!"
Denis came in.
He looked at her with her hair pushed up and laughed.
"Golliwog, what's happened to your hair?"
She looked away from him, fighting a weak inclination to go to him and cry.
"Nothing," she said.
"Painting in this light! Why, Nell, you must be crazy!"
"I daresay I am. I'm sick of never being able to paint—"
"But a dense fog!"
"It's always dense fog in London."
"Headache?" he queried.
"It's my temper that aches, I think." ”

“ Sheila Pat, realising she was to be an invalid, used all her sturdy powers to be a brave one. She was very hot and feverish; her poor little head ached, and she ached all over her body.
"Nell," she said once, "I can't be very little, after all, because there's such a heap of room for the aches! I feel most as big as the giant Mahon MacMahon. Nell, I wonder if he ever caught cold?"
But there was something that worried the Atom and tormented her far more than the worst of the aches did, and that was a bewildering, disconcerting longing to cry that had assailed her. ”

“ What on earth does it matter what a well-meaning but silly little hap'orth says?"
"But—Denis—it isn't our money, you see!"
He banged a nail into the shelf. "I may be a thief, but I'll never turn my friends away, Nell O'Brien!"
She laughed gaily. "I know! I'll make Sarah tell me the exact amount Aunt Kezia spends in a week, and we'll keep horrible accounts, and never go beyond it! At least, with her money. When we get to the end of that, we'll pay for the things with our own money, and live on bread and water and all that sort of thing!"
"We will, my twin, we will! You're a genius." ”

“ Christmas was drawing very near. The stock of stuffed animals was growing large; toys overflowed the Stronghold. A pillow-case, purloined from the bed in the spare room, did duty as a bag to hold some of them. In a spasm of artistic joy Nell had painted a rough sketch of a hunting scene on it, and they lived in terror that Miss Kezia would see it.
The doll's house was furnished throughout; in the bedroom two little dolls in white night-dresses lay in bed. ”

“ Denis had gone off to the bank.
"Now," said Nell, "I'm going to concoct a dream of a lunch! Chicken—oysters—jellies—such sweets! And we'll get hold of Ted, somehow—he must be here!"
He was there. They had the luncheon in the kitchen. "It saves carrying things into the dining room," said Nell, but it was more for the fun of it than anything else. It was a very successful lunch, and the cook received quite an ovation. When the meal was over, she observed:—
"I do hate to give a person a holiday and then make her do her work when she comes home." ”

“ Ted found kippers, cooked by himself and eaten for tea, so good that he ate up every blackened bit of the luckless burnt fish, and declared he regretted the lost tail.
He looked round on the scorched cheeks and smiled benignly. "Isn't it good?" he said, with the simplicity that made Nell so fond of him.
"Oh, Ted, what a dear old man you will make some day!"
"Cantankerous old beast, I think!" observed Denis.
"Isn't it funny that things one cooks one's self are always so much nicer than kitchen-cooked things?" reflected Molly. "But I wish I hadn't cooked my nose quite so much." ”

“ Now it happened that Kate Kearney had so far foregone her dignity as to approach the cupboard to dab at it with a triumphant and insulting paw.
"There it is again!" Miss Kezia was wrathful, but there was also an anxious glint in her eye. "What is the matter with the dog? Is it ill?"
Nell, fascinatedly watching the putting forth of a stealthy brown arm from beneath the sofa, in the direction of Sheila Pat's shoe buttons, responded with an irrepressible little laugh.
"I don't see anything to laugh at, Eileen! I am afraid you are very foolish and frivolous for your age." ”

“ At the breakfast-table Miss Kezia gazed at them astonished. She was not a keen observer, but even she, with the memory of yesterday in her mind, marvelled at the sudden depression.
Denis, in the hall, observed gloomily:—
"Wish I'd get run over, or save a millionnaire's life. Either'd make a break."
"Millionnaires only get their lives saved in books," Nell rejoined bitterly.
He kicked the hat-stand angrily.
"Look here, Nell, I can't go to that beastly bank to-day. I'm sick of it! I'll be committing suicide, or murder, or something, if I do!" ”

“ She remembered how Sheila Pat had once earnestly declared he was so nice to lean against—"just like a pillow." She quoted him beneath her breath, a humorous dimple denting her wet cheek.
"'Let us now consider our blessings—never mind the bad things. Let them go. Consider the good things. The bad things will have more than their share of our thoughts, you may be very sure!'" So Nell got her hands into position to tick off her blessings. "First, there's Denis." She paused; her slim body grew tense with sudden horror, as the thought gripped her: "Suppose Denis had gone, too!" ”

“ Sheila Pat went in. Her eyes were very bright, her pig-tail was very crooked.
"Herr Schmidt," she said, "please will you walk out with Aunt Kezia?"
Herr Schmidt's big face grew redder than its usual red wont. It chanced that he understood the meaning of "walking out."
"Ach!" he ejaculated.
Sheila Pat eyed him severely.
"Sarah says if you're walking out with a young man you must always go when he asks you to," she explained. Her voice rose, "Oh, Herr Schmidt, you could always ask Aunt Kezia when we want to get rid of her, and," impishly she glowed, "she could never say no!" ”

“ Sing O, the blooming heather!
O, the heather glen!
Where fairest fairies gather
To lure in mortal men—'"
She broke off; she turned to him on the last stair, hung on to his arm.
"Denis, if only, only we might tell them! My hair fairly rises with the weight of the secret! I know Sheila Pat is wondering what has come to us!"
"Eileen, come in to breakfast!"
They went in. On the table there lay a great pile of letters. Molly and the Atom came hurrying in; Denis tossed letters to them all, and kept a few himself.
"I cannot understand why there are so many letters this morning," Miss Kezia observed. ”

“ Now Ted Lancaster was possessed of some physical attributes that particularly displeased Nell, as being so ridiculously untrue to his character. She fell to pondering the strength of his rather thin mouth and of his chin; on the look of cleverness about his deep-set eyes. The very breadth of his shoulders displeased her. She told herself that a slack creature such as he must be, who lounged about and did nothing except drive in a motor, had no business with a face like his. Irritatedly she fought against a strong inclination to like him.
"Isn't your motor waiting for you?" ”