Page:Harvey O'Higgins--Silent Sam and other stories.djvu/113

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They found "Milly" (who was "Mlle. Blanc") and her father (who was her ringmaster) in the wings, at the head of a runway that led up to the stage from the basement stables. She nodded to Burls, and said "'Ello 'En!" to Sutley; and her father, arranging the fastenings in the back of the "Mother Hubbard" that she wore, looked over her shoulder to growl a curt greeting to the clowns. A stableman led up her white horse, "Prince." Her father gave her a lift to its broad Norman back, well rubbed with powdered resin. Burls led the old man aside.

She watched them go. "What 's 'e got on with Pop?" she asked Sutley.

He stroked the horse's neck. "D' you want to go back to the circus?"

"Me? Nyo! We on'y just got the flat lookin' like 'ome. W'y?"

"That 's why." He indicated Burls and the father with a nod. "Keep yer eyes open. Don't say I tol' you."

She gave him a long stare of comprehension, "W'at d' you think I ham!"

He did not say, although he studied her as gravely as if he were preparing some reply. Her mother had been a frail Cockney blonde, and she herself was of that type of prettiness; but she had her father's darker eyes, and she had the robust good health of her circus training. She was just full-grown, and she was as frank