Then followed another rush of the populace for the evening meal of the
live stock, but in this Dolores was too wary to share. She made her
way up to her retreat again, and tried to lose the sense of her trouble
and loneliness in a book. Then came the warning bell, and a prodigious
scuffling, racing and chasing, accompanied by yells as of terror and
roars as of victory, all cut short by the growls of Mrs. Halfpenny.
Everything then subsided. The world was dressing; Dolores dressed too,
feeling hurt and forlorn at no one's coming to help her, and yet
worried when Mysie arrived with orders from Mrs. Halfpenny to come to
her to have her sash tied.

'I think a servant ought to come to me. Caroline always does,' said
the only daughter with dignity.

'She can't, for she is putting Primrose to bed. Oh, it's so delicious
to see Prim in her bath,' said Mysie, with a little skip. 'Make haste,
or we shall miss her, the darling.'

Dolores did not feel pressed to behold the spectacle, and not being in
the habit of dressing without assistance, she was tardy, and Mysie
fidgeted about and nearly distracted her. Thus, when she reached the
nursery, Primrose was already in her little white bed-gown, and was
being incited by Valetta to caper about on her cot, like a little
acrobat, as her sisters said, while Mrs. Halfpenny declared that 'they
were making the child that rampageous, she should not get her to sleep
till midnight.'

They would have been turned out much sooner, and Primrose hushed into
silence, if nurse's soul had not been horrified by the state of
Dolores' hair and the general set of her garments.