Jane laughed too, hysterically.

Then the spirit of little Barbara entered into Jane, and made her
ungovernably gay. It passed into Kitty, and ran riot in her blood and
nerves. Whenever Barbara laughed Kitty laughed, and when Kitty laughed
Robert laughed too. Even Janet gave a little shriek now and then. The
children thought it was all because they had had strawberries and cream
for tea, and were going down to the sea to build castles in the sand.

All afternoon, till dinner-time, Kitty laboured on the sands, building
castles as if she had never done anything else in her life. The Hankins
watched her from their seat on the rocks in the angle of the Cliff.

"We were mistaken. She must be all right. How pretty she is, too, poor
thing," said Mrs. Hankin to her husband.

"How pretty she is, how absolutely lovable and good," said Robert to
himself as he watched her, while Barbara, a tired little labourer, lay
stretched in her lap. She was sitting on a rock under the Cliff, with
the great brow of it for a canopy. Her eyes were lowered, and hidden by
their deep lids. She was smiling at the child who leaned back in her
arms, crushing a soft cheek against her breast.

He threw himself down beside her. He had just finished a prodigious
fortress, with earthworks and trenches extending to the sea.

"Kitty, Kitty," he said, "you're only a child yourself, like Janey.
She's perfectly happy building castles in the sand--so are you. You're a
perfect baby."

"We're all babies, Robert, building castles in the sand. And you're the
biggest baby of the lot."

"I don't care. I've built the biggest castle."

"Look at Janet," said Kitty. "She'll be grown up before any of us."

The child sat on a rock with Jane. But, from the distance that she kept,
she looked at her father and Kitty from time to time. All afternoon
Janet had clung to Jane. But when bed-time came Robert took her aside
and whispered something to her. Going home she walked by Kitty, and put
her hand in hers.

"Daddy said I'm to be very kind to you."

"Did he? That's very kind of daddy."

"Daddy's always kind to people. Especially when they've not been very
happy. Really and truly I'm going to be kind. But you won't mind if I
don't love you _very_ soon, will you?"

"Of course I won't. Only don't leave it too late, darling."

"Well, I don't know," said Janet thoughtfully; "we've lots of time."

"Have we?"

"Heaps and heaps. You see, I love Auntie Janey, and i