Page:Georgie by Dorothea Deakin, 1906.djvu/162

"Georgie" watched with surprised, amused faces over their shoulders. Georgie faced his mother in pale silence, and I waited. Little Diana peeped from behind Drusilla with a pleased, excited face. It was the Goddess Girl who broke the silence. If I remember right, it generally was.

"Say!" she cried. "Isn't he just too cute for anything? Whose little piccaninny's this, Georgie? Do tell."

Georgie cast a grateful glance at his fiancée.

"Georgie," demanded his mother, "kindly explain this—this apparition at once."

The apparition in a sudden panic made a step forward to his protector, was at once hopelessly involved in billowing folds of flannellette and fell headlong at the feet of the Goddess Girl. She stepped back hastily.

"My! Is he clean!" she asked anxiously, for her gown was a new one.

Georgie grew red and stooped suddenly to pick up the boy, but he wasn't quick 146