"Books, books, books! I think you will turn into a book yourself some
day, Phil."
"Wait till I have finished this chapter, Maud, and then I will go out
with you."
"That is always what you say," said Maud: "just a chapter, just a page,
and the time goes."
Philip turned over another page.
"Only two more, Maud. Do go. I shall read faster if you do not talk to
me. And then I will come,
And you shall see with your eyes of blue
What a nice surprise I have got for you."
Maud went away slowly, and when she had reached the door she turned to
say,--
"Be quick, Philip."
And then she went and put on her garden hat and went into the garden,
down the walk between the currant bushes to a piece of waste ground
grown over with short grass, that she called her playground, for here
she could run about, and jump, and skip, and hop, and try to walk upon
stilts, and do all sorts of things; and the gardener did not find fault,
as he did if she skipped in the garden walks, and knocked off a flower
here and there.
"I wonder what the surprise is," said Maud, as she sat down on a bench
to wait for Philip.
Before long she saw him coming along, holding his arms behind him. It
was plain he had got something he did not want her to see.