Robin, brought up though she had been in Patchin Place, turned in
disgust from the dreary ugliness about her.
"Does it have to be like that?" she asked her guardian.
"Like what?"
"Oh--dirty. And so dreary. And noisy."
Her guardian laughed. "I'm afraid it does. Work is mostly always
drab--like that. And you see it has grown like a giant. There--there's
the giant for your fairy story, my dear. And giants are usually ugly,
aren't they?"
"Yes, always." Robin spoke with conviction. As they rode on she looked
back over her shoulder. "I'm glad we can't stop today. This ride has
been so lovely that I'd hate to spoil it by--seeing the Giant up close."
"Giants are very powerful. And usually very rich." Cornelius Allendyce
enjoyed the fancy.
"Yes--and they crush and kill, too."
"But didn't a Jack climb something or other and overcome one of them in
his lair?"
At this Robin laughed and then forgot, for the time being, the mills and
the dirty houses; when Mr. Allendyce hoped Mrs. Budge would give them a
very big tea party, she realized she was hungrier than she had ever been
before.
So full had been each moment of her first day at Gray Manor that it was
not until she sat curled in the big divan before the library fire, a
book of colored plates of Italian gardens across her lap that she
thought of her determination to know more of the girl who had called
herself Beryl.
Pages:
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88