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Pennie sighed; Ethelwyn and the mandarin were both painful subjects to her, and she felt just now as though the world were full of trials. There was this dreadful dancing-class looming in the distance something awful and unknown, to which she was daily getting nearer and nearer.
At another time Pennie would have been the first to agree to this, and to feel interested in the rescue of the kitten; but now she was so full of her own good deed, that she only said coldly: "It wasn't worth nearly all that. Why, you can get a kitten for nothing anywhere." David, still grasping his treasure, stared at her solemnly, for this speech was strangely unlike Pennie.
But I think perhaps it looks nicer in summer, because you see the flowers are in bloom and the old people are sitting on the benches, and all that." "I like winter best," said Nancy, "because of making the toast." All the year round a visit to old Nurse was one of the children's greatest pleasures, but it was specially so to Pennie.
This had unfortunately been broken by a friend of Pennie's whilst the two girls were on a visit at Nearminster; and though it had not been her fault, Pennie felt as if she were responsible for the accident.
And then it was such a comfort to find that Betty, far from making any objection or difficulty, was pleased to approve of the arrangement, and even when Pennie, who was very untidy, rumpled the anti-macassars and upset the precise position of the drawing-room chairs, she neither murmured nor frowned.
If we get a nice lot of things," he added in a satisfied voice, "we mean to open it on the day mother comes back." "Oh dear me," exclaimed Nancy, "how I wish Saturday would come! Pennie and I shall have lots to talk about then, which you don't know anything about."
The children had each chosen one of these grotesque figures to be their very own, and had given them names; Pennie called hers the Griffin. He had wings and claws, a long neck, and a half-human face, and seemed to be just poised for flight as though at any moment he might spring away from his resting-place, and alight on the smooth green turf just outside the dean's door.
As she reached to the back of it something round and smooth rolled forward and fell on the floor. It was the head of the poor mandarin. "Ah!" said Miss Unity with a long-drawn sigh, as though she were in sudden pain. Pennie picked it up, and her godmother, replacing it gently, shut the cupboard door and took up her wool again.
"Oh, of course!" said Ambrose at once. But he began to reflect that it would be very dull never to have any pocket-money to spend, and to wish that he had followed David's prudent example. He could not possibly draw back now, but he hoped the mandarin might not prove quite so expensive as Pennie thought. Pennie herself hardly knew what to think about the success of her plan.
She observed that Ambrose became very thoughtful as they approached the house, and presently he asked in an off-hand manner: "How long do you suppose it will take us to buy a mandarin?" Pennie could not say, but she thought it might be a long while, because she had heard that china figures of that sort were expensive, "and of course," she added, "we must get one of the very best."
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