He spoke so earnestly that he startled her. "Are you angry with
me?" she asked.

"Angry! Does the man live who could be angry with you?"

"It might be better for both of us if you _were_ angry with me. I
have to control myself; I will try again. Oh, if you only knew
what I suffer when Mrs. Linley is kind to me!"

He persisted in trying to rouse her to a sense of the danger that
threatened them, while the visitors remained in the house. "In a
few days, Sydney, there will be no more need for the deceit that
is now forced on us. Till that time comes, remember--Mrs. Presty
suspects us."

Kitty ran back to them with her hands full of daisies before they
could say more.

"There is your nosegay, papa. No; I don't want you to thank me--I
want to know what present you are going to give me." Her father's
mind was preoccupied; he looked at her absently. The child's
sense of her own importance was wounded: she appealed to her
governess. "Would you believe it?" she asked. "Papa has forgotten
that next Tuesday is my birthday!"

"Very well, Kitty; I must pay the penalty of forgetting. What
present would you like to have?"

"I want a doll's perambulator."