"People would look at me as if I were the wildest beast in
the whole collection."
"Then," said Violet, "if you won't go to Lady Baldock's or to the
Zoo, we must confine ourselves to Laura's drawing-room;--unless,
indeed, you like to take me to the top of the Monument."
"I'll take you to the top of the Monument with pleasure."
"What do you say, Laura?"
"I say that you are a foolish girl," said Lady Laura, "and that I
will have nothing to do with such a scheme."
"Then there is nothing for it but that you should come here; and as
you live in the house, and as I am sure to be here every morning,
and as you have no possible occupation for your time, and as we have
nothing particular to do with ours,--I daresay I shan't see you again
before I go to my aunt's in Berkeley Square."
"Very likely not," he said.
"And why not, Oswald?" asked his sister.
He passed his hand over his face before he answered her. "Because she
and I run in different grooves now, and are not such meet playfellows
as we used to be once. Do you remember my taking you away right
through Saulsby Wood once on the old pony, and not bringing you back
till tea-time, and Miss Blink going and telling my father?"
"Do I remember it? I think it was the happiest day in my life.
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