g tea with her. So Bobby and Nobbles, with
smiling faces, presented themselves at the appointed time, and Lady
Isobel greeted the small boy most affectionately, Nurse went off to the
house, and then he lost all shyness, and was soon the greatest friends
with the sad-faced woman. It was not very long before he told her of
the beautiful picture he had seen.

'I wish I could read about it,' he lamented, 'but it's in a far away
lang'age, Nurse says.'

'But if it is the Bible your nurse could read it to you.'

'No, it's a diffent Bible.'

He described the cover to her and the pictures. Lady Isobel seemed
quite interested.

'I should like to see it,' she said. 'It must be a very valuable one,
Bobby. I expect some old monks must have painted the pictures in it.
I had a prayer-book once illuminated by them. They had plenty of time
in those days to give to painting, and they did it beautifully.'

'What's a monk?' asked Bobby.

'A man with a bald head in a gown, who lives in a house away from the
world, and makes it his business to be good.'

'In a gown?' repeated Bobby. 'A white one? Me and Nobbles want to
know about white gowns, acause you can't get inside the gates if you
haven't got one on, and'--his lips quivered--'I don't want to be shut
out, I reely don't!'

'I'm sure you needn't be afraid of that,' said Lady Isobel, smiling,
though she sighed at the same time. 'I have always been told that it
is people's own fault if they are left outside.'

'I want to be certain sure I'll get inside the gates,' repeated Bobby,
distress in his brown eyes. 'Me and Nobbles means to be there. I
finks my father will help me get in.'

'I'm sure he will,' said Lady Isobel, cheerfully. 'Now would you like
to come round my garden with me? Shall we pick some flowers for your
nursery? Do you like flowers?'

Bobby assented eagerly.

'The House has a good many,' he said, 'but me and Nobbles never has
none 'cept the daisies, and Tom always cuts them off d'reckly they
comes up.'

He trotted after her along a gravel path that was edged by thick
borders of flowers; roses climbed over arches across their heads. A
smile came over his face as he gazed at the flowers to the right and
left of him.

'Nobbles is rather naughty, sometimes,' he said, looking up into Lady
Isobel's face with twinkling eyes. 'He does love to cut off flowers'
heads, and I can't stop him. He cutted off 'bout a hundred dandelions
one day in the orc