Page:The Princess Casamassima (London and New York, Macmillan & Co., 1886), Volume 1.djvu/28

 he grows up he will make you wish you had done the opposite.' Mrs. Bowerbank called it opposite.

'Oh, dear, then, I'm glad it will be a long time.'

'It will be ever so long, if once he gets it into his head! At any rate, you must do as you think best. Only, if you come, you mustn't come when it's all over.'

'It's too impossible to decide.'

'It is, indeed,' said Mrs. Bowerbank, with superior consistency. And she seemed more placidly grim than ever when she remarked, gathering up her loosened shawl, that she was much obliged to Miss Pynsent for her civility, and had been quite freshened up: her visit had so completely deprived her hostess of that sort of calm. Miss Pynsent gave the fullest expression to her perplexity in the supreme exclamation:

'If you could only wait and see the child, I'm sure it would help you to judge!'

'My dear woman, I don't want to judge—it's none of our business!' Mrs. Bowerbank exclaimed; and she had no sooner uttered the words than the door of the room creaked open and a small boy stood there gazing at her. Her eyes rested on him a moment, and then, most unexpectedly, she gave an inconsequent cry. 'Is that the child? Oh, Lord o' mercy, don't take him!'

'Now ain't he shrinking and sensitive?' demanded Miss Pynsent, who had pounced upon him, and, holding him an instant at arm's length, appealed eagerly to her visitor. 'Ain't he delicate and high-bred, and wouldn't he be thrown into a state?' Delicate as he might be the little dressmaker shook him smartly for his naughtiness in being out of the way when he was wanted, and brought him to the