g his holidays at Chalet.
So all was settled; and grandmother, who had taken a little house at
Dover for a few weeks, stayed there quietly, while aunty journeyed away
up to the north of England to fetch the children, their father being too
busy with preparations for his own departure to be able conveniently
to take them to Dover himself. There were some tears shed at parting with
"papa," for the children loved him truly, and believed in his love for
them, quiet and undemonstrative though his manner was. There were some
tears, too, shed at parting with "nurse," who, having conscientiously
spoilt them all, was now getting past work, and was to retire to her
married daughter's; there were a good many bestowed on the rough coat of
Shag, the pony, and the still rougher of Fusser, the Scotch terrier; but
after all, children are children, and for my part I should be very sorry
for them to be anything else, and the delights of the change and the
bustle of the journey soon drowned all melancholy thoughts.

And so far all had gone charmingly. Aunty had proved to be all that could
be wished of aunty-kind, and grandmother promised more than fairly.

"What _would_ we have done if she had been very tall and stout, and
fierce-looking, with spectacles and a hookey nose?" thought Molly, and as
the thought struck her, she left off eating, and sat with wide open eyes,
staring at her grandmother.

Though grandmother did not in general wear spectacles--only when reading
very small print, or busied with some peculiarly fine fancywork--nothing
ever seemed to escape her notice.

"Molly, my dear, what are you staring at so? Is my cap crooked?" she
said. Molly started.

"Oh no, grandmother dear," she replied. "I was only thinking----" she
stopped short, jumped off her seat, and in another moment was round the
table with a rush, which would have been sadly trying to most
grandmothers and aunties, only fortunately these special ones were not
like most!

"What is the matter, dear?" grandmother was beginning to exclaim, when
she was stopped by feeling two arms hugging her tightly, and a rather
bread-and-buttery little mouth kissing her valorously.

"Nothing's the matter," said Molly, when she stopped her kisses, "it only
just came into my head when I was looking at you, how nice you were, you
dear little grandmother, and I thought I'd like to kiss you. I don't want
you to have a gold-headed stick, but I do want one thing, and then you
_would