"Yes," said Carrots. "How _did_ you guess? You"re like a fairy, auntie."
But then his face grew troubled again. "I forgot," he went on, "it"s a secret. It"s Floss"s secret too. I would so like to tell you, for I don"t know what to do. I don"t mind having no tea, but they all thought I was naughty."
"Wait a minute," said auntie. She hurried out of the room, but was back in a minute.
"I"ve asked Floss," she said, "and she gives you leave to tell me. So now, perhaps, when I know all about it, I can tell you what to do."
The telling did not take Carrots long; he was so glad to show auntie he had not meant to be naughty. Auntie listened quite gravely, and when he had finished she said she thought he was quite right not to take any sugar.
"But do you think Floss did?" said Carrots, anxiously.
"Perhaps having tea in the dining-room made her forget," said auntie.
"We"ll ask her afterwards, and if she did forget, I"ll tell you what she must do. She must go without one day longer than you. Now come along with me, and I"ll make it all right, you"ll see."
When they got back to the dining-room auntie quietly lifted Carrots on to his chair again, and said to his mamma with a smile, "It was all a mistake; I thought it was; Carrots was not naughty at all, and he is quite happy again now."
And Mrs. Desart smiled too, so Carrots really did feel happy again. But he wondered what auntie would do about the tea, which was still standing there as he had left it, and it would be wrong to "waste" it, thought Carrots.
Sybil was sitting on auntie"s other side, and auntie glancing at her cup saw that it was empty. So auntie quietly put Carrots" cup before Sybil and gave Carrots the empty one.
"Cecil," she said, "will you give Carrots some tea without any sugar?"
Cecil saw that auntie had some reason for asking this, so she gave Carrots the tea as auntie said, and Carrots drank it and ate his bread and b.u.t.ter and a piece of cake, with great content.
The only person who did not seem _quite_ contented was Sybil.
"Mother," she whispered, "I don"t like having Carrots" tea. It"s quite cold."
But as Carrots didn"t hear it, it didn"t much matter. For you see, Sybil had had one cup of nice hot tea, so she was not so badly off after all.
And, alas! the very next morning auntie and Sybil had to go away. And the long-talked of and fancied-about visit was over.
CHAPTER X.
A JOURNEY AND ITS ENDING.
"The way was long, the wind was cold."
Soon after auntie"s visit summer really began to come. It was very pleasant while it lasted, but this year it was a very short summer, and the winter that came after was a very severe one, and made many people ill. It did not make Carrots ill, nor Floss, nor any of the Desart children, for they were all strong, but it was very bad for their mother. As the winter went on, she seemed to get weaker and weaker; there were very few days on which she could go out, and if the spring had not been an early and very mild one, I hardly think her strength would have lasted.
But with the finer weather she seemed to get better again. The children were of course very glad, but still they had not felt frightened by her illness. It had come on so slowly and gradually that they had got accustomed to it, as children do. They thought it was just the cold wintry weather that had made her ill, and that when the spring came she would get better. And when the spring came and she _did_ get better, they were perfectly satisfied and happy.
By the end of _this_ summer Carrots was seven years old--no longer in the least a baby, though he was not tall for his age. He could read, of course, perfectly, and write a little. Now and then he wrote little letters to Sybil in answer to hers, for she was very particular about getting answers. She was only just beginning to learn to write, and sometimes when she got tired of working away at real "A"s" and "B"s" and "C"s" in her letters, she would dash off into a lot of "scribble," which she said was "children"s writing," and "if Carrots didn"t know what it meant he must be very stupid, as he was a child too."
Carrots _didn"t_ know what it meant, but he never liked to say so, and I dare say it did not much matter. But _his_ letters to Sybil were quite real. Any one could have understood them.
Long ago Floss and he had bought their hoops. They were quite "old friends" now. They had bought them at the toy-shop, just as they had planned, and, curiously enough when their mamma and nurse counted up how much was owing to them for the sugar, it came to _exactly_ the price of the hoops.
But I must tell you what happened just about the time Carrots had his seventh birthday. The summer was nearly over again and already the cold winds, of which there were so many at Sandysh.o.r.e, were beginning to be felt. Floss noticed that her mother very seldom went out now, and even in the house she generally had to wrap herself up in a shawl.
"Mamma, I hope the cold weather isn"t going to make you ill again?"
Floss said, one day when she and Carrots came in from a race on the sands, all hot and rosy with running.
"I don"t know, dear," said her mother with a little sigh.
"I wish you could run about like us. That would make you _so_ hot," said Carrots.
Mrs. Desart smiled. Just then her glance happened to fall on Floss"s boots. "My dear child," she said, "those boots are really not fit to go out with. There"s a great hole at the side of one of them."
"I know, mamma," said Floss, "but they"re going to be mended. Nurse thinks they"ll do a good while longer, if they"re mended. I hope they will, for I know you always have so many new things to get when winter begins to come--haven"t you, mamma?"
Mrs. Desart sighed again.
"I should have liked all your things to be so nice," she said, more as if speaking to herself than to Floss, "but it can"t be helped."
Something in her tone caught Floss"s attention.
"Why, mamma?" she asked, "why did you want our things to be so nice?"
"Because, dears, you may be going away from home," replied Mrs. Desart.
Floss and Carrots stared with astonishment. "Going away from home,"
Floss repeated, utterly unable to say more. Carrots could say nothing at all, he could _only_ stare.
"Yes," continued Mrs. Desart, "I had meant to tell you about it before, but I have kept putting it off--" she stopped and seemed to hesitate.
"Why, mamma?" said Floss again. "Don"t you like us to go? Are you coming with us, mamma?"
"Are we going to auntie"s?" said Carrots.
His asking this seemed to please his mother.
"You would like to go to auntie"s, wouldn"t you, Carrots?" she said.
Carrots stroked his mother"s shawl up and down two or three times before he answered.
"I"d like to go if you would come too," he said at last, "but I think I would rather stay at home, thank you, if you can"t come."
Mrs. Desart"s eyes filled with tears. "Poor little Carrots!" she said, softly smoothing his curls with her hand. "But if it would please me for Floss and you to go without me?" she said.
"I"ll go if you want me to go, mamma," said Carrots.
"I must explain a little," said Mrs. Desart, and then she went on to tell the children how it was. The doctor had said she must not risk another winter at Sandysh.o.r.e, and it had been arranged for her to go to a warmer climate. Cecil and Louise were to go with her; Captain Desart would be with them as much as he possibly could, and Maurice was to live at school. And what concerned the two little ones almost more than anything, _nurse_ was to go too! "I must have some one kind and sensible with me, in case, in case--" and again Mrs. Desart hesitated.
"In case you were very tired with travelling, or if you were to get a bad cold again; somebody who could make nice white wine whey and things like that," said Floss, who was of a practical turn of mind, "oh yes, mamma, I quite understand."