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"Am I to come home?" he asked.

"Yes, I've come to fetch you."

"Hulloa, Emma!" he said.

"You naughty boy, Miss Watkin will be cross with you."

It was a week later. Philip was sitting on the floor in the drawing-room at Miss Watkin's house in Onslow gardens. He was an only child and used to amusing himself. The room was filled with massive furniture, and on each of the sofas were three big cushions. There was a cushion too in each arm-chair. All these he had taken and, with the help of the gilt rout chairs, light and easy to move, had made an elaborate cave in which he could hide himself from the Red Indians who were lurking behind the curtains. He put his ear to the floor and listened to the herd of buffaloes that raced across the prairie. Presently, hearing the door open, he held his breath so that he might not be discovered; but a violent hand piled away a chair and the cushions fell down.

The nurse bent down and kissed him, then began to shake out the cushions, and put them back in their places.

"You've got a new dress on."

"Oh, I am glad."

"Why not?"

"Aren't you going to ask how your mamma is?" she said at length.

Philip did not know what she meant.

"Your mamma's gone away. You won't ever see her any more."

It was in eighteen-eighty-five, and she wore a bustle. Her gown was of black velvet, with tight sleeves and sloping shoulders, and the skirt had three large flounces. She wore a black bonnet with velvet strings. She hesitated. The question she had expected did not come, and so she could not give the answer she had prepared.

"Your mamma is quite well and happy."

Now she was ready.

She began to cry, and Philip, though he did not quite understand, cried too. Emma was a tall, big-boned woman, with fair hair and large features. She came from Devonshire and, notwithstanding her many years of service in London, had never lost the breadth of her accent. Her tears increased her emotion, and she pressed the little boy to her heart. She felt vaguely the pity of that child deprived of the only love in the world that is quite unselfish. It seemed dreadful that he must be handed over to strangers. But in a little while she pulled herself together.

"Oh, I forgot. How is mamma?"

"Your mamma's in heaven."

"Your Uncle William is waiting in to see you," she said. "Go and say good-bye to Miss Watkin, and we'll go home."

He fetched it, and when he came down Emma was waiting for him in the hall. He heard the sound of voices in the study behind the dining-room. He paused. He knew that Miss Watkin and her sister were talking to friends, and it seemed to him -- he was nine years old -- that if he went in they would be sorry for him.

"I think I'll go and say good-bye to Miss Watkin."

"I don't want to say good-bye," he answered, instinctively anxious to hide his tears.

"Very well, run upstairs and get your hat."

"I think you'd better," said Emma.

There was a sudden hush of the conversation, and Philip limped in. Henrietta Watkin was a stout woman, with a red face and dyed hair. In those days to dye the hair excited comment, and Philip had heard much gossip at home when his godmother's changed colour. She lived with an elder sister, who had resigned herself contentedly to old age. Two ladies, whom Philip did not know, were calling, and they looked at him curiously.

"Go in and tell them I'm coming," he said.

"Master Philip wants to say good-bye to you, miss."

He wished to make the most of his opportunity. Emma knocked at the door and walked in. He heard her speak.

She began to cry. Philip understood now why she had not been in to luncheon and why she wore a black dress. She could not speak.

"My poor child," said Miss Watkin, opening her arms.

"I've got to go home," said Philip, at last.

"His mother was my greatest friend. I can't bear to think that she's dead."

He disengaged himself from Miss Watkin's arms, and she kissed him again. Then he went to her sister and bade her good-bye too. One of the strange ladies asked if she might kiss him, and he gravely gave her permission. Though crying, he keenly enjoyed the sensation he was causing; he would have been glad to stay a little longer to be made much of, but felt they expected him to go, so he said that Emma was waiting for him. He went out of the room. Emma had gone downstairs to speak with a friend in the basement, and he waited for her on the landing. He heard Henrietta Watkin's voice.

"You oughtn't to have gone to the funeral, Henrietta," said her sister. "I knew it would upset you."

"Yes, he's got a club-foot. It was such a grief to his mother."

"Poor little boy, it's dreadful to think of him quite alone in the world. I see he limps."

Then one of the strangers spoke.

Then Emma came back. They called a hansom, and she told the driver where to go.