ALBERT'S UNCLE'S GRANDMOTHER
was in the Navy then. And then, … well, we were both sorry; but well, anyway, when his ship came back we'd gone to Constantinople, then to England, and he couldn't find us. And he says he's been looking for me ever since."
"Not you for him?" said Noël.
"Well, perhaps," said the lady.
And the girls said "Ah!" with deep interest. The lady went on more quickly. "And then I found you, and then he found me, and now I must break it to you. Try to bear up …"
She stopped. The branches crackled, and Albert's uncle was in our midst. He took off his hat. "Excuse my tearing my hair," he said to the lady, "but has the pack really hunted you down?"
"It's all right," she said, and when she looked at him she got miles prettier quite suddenly. "I was just breaking to them …"
"Don't take that proud privilege from me," he said. "Kiddies, allow me to present you to the future Mrs. Albert's uncle, or shall we say Albert's new aunt?"
•••••••
There was a good deal of explaining done before tea—about how we got there, I mean, and why. But after the first bitterness of disappointment we felt not nearly so sorry as we had expected to. For Albert's uncle's lady was very jolly to us, and her brother was awfully decent, and showed us a lot of first-class native curiosities and things, unpacking them on purpose: skins of beasts, and
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