Page:Margaret Sherwood--A Puritan in Bohemia.djvu/178

170 "Her, Miss Bradford. I mean him. He came into Miss Bradford's studio, and she said, 'Gracious heavens! What can have brought you here?"

"Who came?"

"Mr. Stanton!" ejaculated Annabel. "And then, and then he said: 'Deem me not too precipitate, my Amanda, and he passed his arm gently around her waist."

"Annabel, what are you making up now?" asked Miss Wistar, putting her hand upon the child's shoulder. "You said something like that once before. Who taught you?"

"It's true," whimpered Annabel, "true as I live and breathe. I saw it. 'Alternately he knelt at her feet, alternately he folded her to his bosom.'"

Miss Wistar's bewildered laugh brought the child back from the world of her imagination. She looked up, hurt. Then she spoke with a candour that carried conviction:

"Anyhow, he kissed her. I seen him