Page:Burnett - Two Little Pilgrims' Progress A Story of the City Beautiful.djvu/21

Rh "Oh, Robert!"she exclaimed,"surely they are not like Matilda.”

"Well, perhaps it is too much to say they are like her,” he answered,"but there is something in their faces that reminds me of her strongly. I don’t know what it is exactly, but it is there. It is a good thing, perhaps,” with a sad tone in his voice; “Matilda always did what she made up her mind to do. Matilda was a success. I was always a failure.”

"Oh no, Bob,” she said, "not a failure!"

She had put her hand on his shoulder, and he lifted it and pressed it against his thin cheek.

"Wasn’t I, Maggie?"he said gently. "Wasn’t I? Well, I think these two will be like Matilda in making up their minds and getting what they want.”

Before the winter was over, Robin and Meg were orphans, and were with Aunt Matilda; and there they had been ever since.

Until the day they found the Straw Parlour, it had seemed as if no corner on the earth belonged to them. Meg slept in a cot in a farm-servant’s room, Robin shared a room with someone else. Nobody took any notice of them.

"When anyone meets us,” Meg said, "they always look surprised. Dogs which are not allowed in the house are like us. The only difference is that they