The Gap in the Fence | Page 4

and they moved on slowly.
"What a queer little girl!" said Ruth, as soon as the woman and the child were out of hearing. "Hadn't she a comical little skirt?--all tiny frills; and her hair looked so funny in those tight little pig-tails."
"I think she must be French," said Mary. "Little French girls always do their hair like that, in pictures--in two plaits tied with big bows. And the nurse was dressed like a French bonne, with those long streamers in her cap."
"She looks so sad," said Norah. "Poor little girl! Did you see how sad her eyes were when she looked at us, Mary? I don't expect she has anyone to play with her all day long."
"And the nurse looked a grim old thing," said Stephen. "You'd better offer to go and play with her, Norah; you are always wanting a friend of your own age to play with, and here's one all ready and waiting."
"She doesn't look as if she could play," said Philip. "Come on, Tom, I want to let the rabbits out for a run after I've given these mulberry leaves to the silk-worms."
The children had planned to have tea in Weedon Woods that afternoon, but before dinner-time the sky became so cloudy and angry-looking that their mother feared a storm, and said that it would be wiser to put off their picnic until another day.
And at one o'clock the rain began--down it came in torrents, then hail, then rain again; and the children stood at the windows and watched it, feeling glad that they had not started for the picnic.
"We shouldn't have liked the wood today," said Dan, pressing up rather closely to Mary as a loud rumble of thunder sounded very near to them.
"No," said Mary, "I'm glad mother wouldn't let us go; we should have been soaked through by this time."
Just then Ellen, the housemaid, put her head in at the door.
"If you please, Miss Mary," she said, looking very much inclined to laugh, "there's a strange gentleman in the drawing-room asking to see you."
"To see me, Ellen? Are you sure?" asked Mary in surprise. "Didn't he ask to see father or mother?"
"The master and mistress are both out, Miss," said Ellen; "and he asked if you were in"; and then she hurried away in answer to a ring at the back-door bell.
"Oh, Ruth, supposing it's the foreign gentleman!" said Norah.
"Nonsense, Norah," said Ruth; "you never think of anything else."
When Mary opened the drawing-room door, however, she began to think that perhaps Norah was right after all, and the queer-looking old gentleman on the sofa was really the foreign gentleman who had come to live at the Grange.
He wore a pair of very large, blue spectacles, and had a long, white beard and bushy, white eyebrows which almost met over his nose; and he had a tight, little black silk cap on his head, and was dressed in a long, loose black coat, which showed glimpses of a crimson silk waistcoat underneath.
He was quite a short, old gentleman, Mary saw, as he rose to his feet and made her a very low bow; and he was very fat, the little girl thought to herself--almost as broad as he was long.
She held out her hand very politely, however, and said "How do you do?" and the little, old gentleman bowed three times, and then sat down again on the sofa.
"I cannot speak your language very well," he said, in a high, squeaky voice. "But I want to make your acquaintance, and the acquaintance of your brothers and your sisters. Where are they, if you please?"
"I'll go and fetch them," said Mary; and she went out into the hall, and called the other children, who were all sitting in a row at the foot of the staircase.
They jumped up when they saw Mary, and followed her across the hall in great glee when they heard that the foreign gentleman wanted to see them also.
"He is a very queer old gentleman," she whispered: "but you mustn't laugh, any of you, or look at each other--promise!"
[Illustration: "You mustn't laugh, any of you--promise!"]
"We promise," cried the children; and they pressed eagerly into the room, with Snap, the fox-terrier, bringing up the rear.
CHAPTER III.
THE LITTLE FOREIGN GIRL.
Before the children had time to shake hands with the old gentleman, Snap darted forward and sprang upon him eagerly--not barking or sniffing round his feet and ankles, as he usually did to strangers, making them feel as if he were looking out for a nice place for a bite, but jumping up and throwing himself upon him with little yelps of delight, behaving, indeed, just as he always did if he thought anyone was going to take him for a walk.
And what do you think the old gentleman said? He said: "Down Snap,