I answered.

"An' we are going, too!" said Dorothy.

"Yes, we're quite ready, Uncle Dick," cried the Imp, thrusting his
pistols into his belt.

"But you wouldn't leave me all alone, would you, children?" asked Lady
Warburton, and there was a certain wistfulness in her sharp face that
seemed new to it.

"'Course not," sighed the Imp, "only--"

"We must stay and take care of her, Reginald," nodded Dorothy
decisively.

"Yes, I'll take care of you, Aunt, with lance, battle-axe, an' sword,
by day an' night," said the Imp, "only--I should have liked to see
Uncle Dick's wonderful house, with the real swords an' armour, in the
Land of Heart's Delight--some day, you know."

"And so you shall," cried Lady Warburton, and she actually stooped to
kiss him, and then Dorothy, rather 'pecky' kisses, perhaps, but very
genuine kisses notwithstanding.

"Richard," she said, giving me her hand, "we shall come down to your
wonderful house--all three of us next week, so be prepared--now be
off--both of you."

"Then you forgive me, Aunt?" asked Lisbeth, hesitating.

"Well, I don't quite know yet, Lisbeth; but, my dear, I'll tell you
something I have never mentioned to a living soul but you; if I had
acted forty years ago as you did to-day, I should have been a very
different creature to the cross-grained old woman you think me.
There--there's a kiss, but as for forgiving you--that is quite another
matter; I must have time to think it all over. Good-bye, my dear; and,
Richard, fill her life with happiness, to make up for mine, if you can.
Children, bid good-bye to your Auntie--and Uncle Dick!"

"You won't forget the sword with the 'deadly point,' will you, Uncle
Dick?"

"I won't forget, my Imp!" Hereupon he tried to smile, but his
trembling lips refused, and snatching his band from mine he turned
away; as for Dorothy, she was sobbing into the fur of the fluffy kitten.

Then I helped Lisbeth aboard The Joyful Hope, loving her the more for
the tears that gleamed beneath her long lashes, and 'casting loose,' we
glided out into the stream.

There they stood, the two children, with the white-haired figure
between them, Dorothy holding up the round-eyed "Louise" for a parting
glimpse, and the Imp flourishing his cutlass, until a bend of the river
hid them from view.

So Lisbeth and I sailed on together through the golden morning to "The
Land of Heart's Delight."

End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of My Lady Ca