I mean to be so busy to-morrow settling all my treasures.' And I spoke with so much animation that Uncle Max smiled at what he called my youthful enthusiasm.
'You may be as busy as you like all day,' he returned, in his pleasant way, 'so that you come up to the vicarage in the afternoon to see Mrs.
Drabble.

Lawrence will be out: that fellow always is out,'-- in a humorous tone of vexation.

'He makes himself so confoundedly agreeable that people are always asking him to dinner: he is terribly secular, is Lawrence, but he is young and will mend.

Come up to the vicarage and dine with me, Ursula; I want you to taste Mrs.Drabble's pancakes: they are food for angels, as Lawrence always says.' I accepted the invitation a little regretfully, for it seemed hard to leave my hermitage the first evening; but then Uncle Max had been so good to me that it would never do to disappoint him, and, as Mr.Tudor would be out, we should be very cosy together.
Mrs.Barton brought in the ham and eggs at this moment, and I sat down before my gay little tea-tray, marvelling secretly at the scarlet flamingo.

There were plenty of homely delicacies on the table,--hot cakes and honey, and a basket of brown-and-yellow pippins.