"It"s very odd," said Robin, fretfully. "I can"t think what"s the matter to-night. Mamma was crying too when we were acting, and papa said we weren"t to tease her with questions, and he kissed her hand, and I kissed her hand too. And papa said we must all be very good and kind to poor dear mamma, and so I mean to be, she"s so good. And I think we"d better go home, or perhaps she"ll be frightened," Robin added.
"She"s so good, is she?" asked the old man. He had put Pax off his knee, and taken Dora on to it.
"Oh, isn"t she!" said Nicholas, swaying his curly head from side to side as usual.
"She"s always good," said Robin, emphatically; "and so"s papa. But I"m always doing something I oughtn"t to," he added, slowly. "But then, you know, I don"t pretend to obey Sarah. I don"t care a fig for Sarah; and I won"t obey any woman but mamma."
"Who"s Sarah?" asked the grandfather.
"She"s our nurse," said Robin, "and she tells--I mustn"t say what she tells--but it"s not the truth. She told one about _you_ the other day,"
he added.
"About me?" said the old man.
"She said you were our grandpapa. So then I knew she was telling _you know what_."
"How did you know it wasn"t true?" the old man asked.
"Why, of course," said Robin, "if you were our mamma"s father, you"d know her, and be very fond of her, and come to see her. And then you"d be our grandfather, too, and you"d have us to see you, and perhaps give us Christmas-boxes. I wish you were," Robin added with a sigh. "It would be very nice."
"Would _you_ like it?" asked the old man of Dora.
And Dora, who was half asleep and very comfortable, put her little arms about his neck as she was wont to put them around the Captain"s, and said, "Very much."
He put her down at last, very tenderly, almost unwillingly, and left the children alone. By-and-by he returned, dressed in the blue cloak, and took Dora up again.
"I will see you home," he said.
The children had not been missed. The clock had only just struck nine when there came a knock on the door of the dining-room, where the Captain and his wife still sat by the Yule log. She said "Come in,"
wearily, thinking it was the frumenty and the Christmas cakes.
But it was her father, with her child in his arms!
VIII.
The Captain had many friends who knew of the sad estrangement between his wife and her father. Some of them were in church the next day, which was Christmas Day, when the Captain"s wife came in. They would have hid their faces, but for the startling sight that met the gaze of the congregation. The old grandfather walked into church abreast of the Captain.
"They"ve met in the porch," whispered one under the shelter of his hat.
"They can"t quarrel publicly in a place of worship," said another, turning pale.
"She"s gone into his seat," cried a girl in a shrill whisper.
"And the children after her," added her sister, incautiously aloud.
There was now no doubt about the matter. The old man in his blue cloak stood for a few moments politely disputing the question of precedence with his handsome son-in-law. Then the Captain bowed and pa.s.sed in, and the old man followed him.
By the time that the service was ended everybody knew of the happy peacemaking, and was glad. One old friend after another came up with blessings and good wishes. This was a proper Christmas, indeed, they said. There was a general rejoicing.
But only the grandfather and his children knew that it was hatched from "The Peace Egg."