'Why didn't you tell _me_ that you wanted a new necklace? I'd have
loved to give you one.'
'What _do_ you mean, Ross?'
'Michael wrote to me to-day that you had said you wanted a "new necklace
for yourself" directly the cave was finished, and that I was to buy you
one.'
Oh, isn't he absurd and dear? So I opened the box, and inside there
were two to choose from. So I chose the one of very perfect pearls, and
then for some extraordinary reason of his own Ross kissed me and said,--
'_How_ Michael spoils you, darling.'
But two kisses in twelve days. He must be ill, I think.
*CHAPTER XVIII*
It's All Fools' Day. Perhaps that's why the Titmouse elected to get the
rheumatics that come from damp attics, so that I had to tell the Stench
what 'to be getting on with.'
As I walked round the garden with him I asked if all the seeds were in.
'In, an' coming up by the galore, mum, an' I've given the turnips a
dressin' of soot, as it makes a vast difference to 'em on their first
appearance through the soil, mum.'