Page:The golden age.djvu/96

THE GOLDEN AGE laughingly, struggling to disengage her hand from the grasp of a grown-up man who occupied the marble bench with her. (As to age, I suppose now that the two swung in respective scales that pivoted on twenty. But children heed no minor distinctions. To them, the inhabited world is composed of the two main divisions: children and upgrown people; the latter in no way superior to the former—only hopelessly different. These two, then, belonged to the grown-up section.) I paused, thinking it strange they should prefer seclusion when there were fish to be caught, and butterflies to hunt in the sun outside; and as I cogitated thus, the grown-up man caught sight of me.

'Hallo, sprat!' he said with some abruptness; 'Where do you spring from?'

'I came up the stream,' I explained politely and comprehensively, 'and I was only looking for the Princess.'

'Then you are a water-baby,' he replied. 'And what do you think of the Princess, now you've found her?'

'I think she is lovely,' I said (and doubtless 60