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Sara clapped her hands again, and this time no harm was done; for her cheek-dimples were safe in the dimple-holder, and her hand-dimples were on the outside, so that the clapping only jarred them a little. It was funny, she thought, that Schlorge scorned to work on hand-dimples, and even the Snimmy scarcely noticed them. But it didn't worry her. Avrillia that was it.
However, from the front, of course, you hardly noticed it. "Well," said Pirlaps, at last, glancing at the small clinical thermometer he carried, "we'll just have time to take a look at the Strained Relations, and then I must get back and help Avrillia vanish the children." He led Sara to a distant corner of the uncommon that was fenced off from the rest by a high wire netting.
"It's too bad to bring you away when the children are at home, Sara, but you know they are a great deal of care to Avrillia, and when they're at home I try to do everything I can to relieve her. Now, you see, she won't have to bother about my trousers for the whole afternoon." "But how can you get along without your step?" asked Sara.
The only question in my mind is, How shall we apply it? After thinking about it most carefully, I have worked out a tentative plan. Avrillia, I am sure, can furnish us plenty of ammunition." Are you strong enough to wield a pair, Sara?" he asked. Even in the stress of this dire moment he spoke so kindly that she loved him more than ever; and she told him proudly that she was sure she could.
The fierce-looking old gentleman with the Roman nose is the Squawk; he has a worse disposition, even, than the Popinjay. That beautiful little lady with the deep blue velvet cloak and the vest that looks like ploughed fields in March, is the Skybird; she is lovely and gentle, and reminds me of Avrillia. But she's quite absent-minded.
And there sat Avrillia, in a mist of her bright, wild hair, so intent upon her writing that she did not see them, or hear them speak. "Sh sh " said Pirlaps, in a low tone, when he saw how absorbed she was. "We'll wait till she finishes that one. Why didn't I bring my step?"
Avrillia had hardly taken the first mouthful when she cried, "I forgot the children!" and sprang up and flitted to the door. As she opened the door Sara heard faint little cries and tinkling laughter, drifting back from the hill where the children still played and frolicked in the snow. Presently Avrillia shut the door and came back to her place at the table.
But what can be keeping Avrillia?" They all looked down the pathway, but no Avrillia was in sight. Suddenly the Echo of the Plynck spoke from the pool. "The guest of honor always goes and fetches anybody who doesn't come," she said. "Does she?" asked Sara, opening her eyes wide; but Pirlaps said, "To be sure! I had forgotten. Come on, Sara. Let's go bring Avrillia."
"'Rillia!" came back the wild, eerie syllables, so distinctly that Sara's heart leaped. "Oh, an echo!" she cried, clapping her hands. "How beautiful!" "Bless the child!" said Pirlaps, smiling at Avrillia. "You hear a reflection, Sara; you see an echo." "Like the Echo of the Plynck in the pool," supplemented Avrillia. "Don't you remember, Sara?"
Her eyes traveled once more over the shining little table, and the friendly faces of Pirlaps and Avrillia, and the glowing little kitchen, and out through the little window, where the fog-bushes were making long blue shadows, and the fairy lights danced on the silver snow. Never before had she stayed so late. But neither had she ever had such a lovely time.
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