It was so exceedingly comical, that
she went off into fits of laughing, in which she was heartily joined
by all the merry party.
"There," said Lord de la Poer, "do you want to know what your Uncle
Giles is like? you've only to look at yourself See, Barbara, is it
not a capital likeness?"
"I never thought her like GILES," said her aunt gravely, with an
emphasis on the name, as if she meant that the child did bear a
likeness that was really painful to her.
"My dears," said the mother, "you should not have put her in such a
condition; could you not have been more careful?"
Kate expected one of them to say, "She would do it in spite of us;"
but instead of that Fanny only answered, "It is not so bad as it
looks, Mamma; I believe her frock is quite safe; and we will soon
have her face and hands clean."
Whereupon Kate turned round and said, "It is all my fault, and
NOBODY'S ELSE'S. They told me not, but it was such fun!"
And therewith she obeyed a pull from Grace, and ran upstairs with the
party to be washed; and as the door shut behind them, Lord de la Poer
said, "You need not be afraid of THAT likeness, Barbara. Whatever
else she may have brought from her parsonage, she has brought the
spirit of truth."
Though knowing that something awful hung over her head, Kate was all
the more resolved to profit by her brief minutes of enjoyment; and
the little maidens all went racing and flying along the passages
together; Kate feeling as if the rapid motion among the other young
feet was life once more.
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