But she appeared to be satisfied at not having been contradicted and did not return to the subject that evening.
Mr.Juxon lost no time in keeping his word and on the following morning at about eleven o'clock, when Mrs.Goddard was just hearing the last of Nellie's lesson in geography and little Nellie herself was beginning to be terribly tired of acquiring knowledge in such very warm weather, the squire's square figure was seen to emerge from the park gate opposite, clad in grey knickerbockers and dark green stockings, a rose in his buttonhole and a thick stick in his hand, presenting all the traditional appearance of a thriving country gentleman of the period.

He crossed the road, stopped a moment and whistled his dog to heel and then opened the wicket gate that led to the cottage.

Nellie sprang to the window in wild excitement.
"Oh what a dog!" she cried.

"Mamma, _do_ come and see! And Mr.Juxon is coming, too--he has green stockings!" But Mrs.Goddard, who was not prepared for so early a visit, hastily put away what might be described as the debris of Nellie's lessons, to wit, a much thumbed book of geography, a well worn spelling book, a very particularly inky piece of blotting paper, a pen of which most of the stock had been subjected to the continuous action of Nellie's teeth for several months, and an ancient doll, without the assistance of which, as a species of Stokesite _memoria teohnica_, Nellie declared that she could not say her lessons at all.

Those things disappeared, and, with them, Nellie's troubles, into a large drawer set apart for the purpose.