Page:Georgie by Dorothea Deakin, 1906.djvu/160

"Georgie" His mother smiled.

"Why not?" said she. "I'm not slim enough to run up and down stairs so soon after dinner, Georgie. So go and bring your present down, there's a dear boy."

He went. I gasped and tried to catch Drusilla's eye for sympathy, but she was entranced in the woes of a misunderstood center three-quarter, in a far corner, and absolutely blind and deaf to her husband's appeals.

"Absurd boy!" With delighted pride Georgie's mother turned to me. "He always makes such a mystery over his little surprises. He's as bad now as he was when he used to smuggle snakes and hedgehogs into his bedroom. Dear boy! The housemaids used to go into fits when they made his bed, and found Georgie's curious pets amongst his blankets. One girl was never quite the same afterward, and I've been obliged to keep her with me ever since, doing light work in the kitchen. He isn't at all careful even now." 144