Then as I became more awake and the sound not less distinct, I felt fidgety and frightened, and at last called faintly for Nurse Bundle.
Then the sound stopped.

I could hardly breathe, and had just resolved upon making a brave sally for assistance, when--plump! _something_ alighted on my bed, and, wildly impossible as it seemed, Rubens himself waggled up to my pillow, and began licking my face as if his life depended on laying my nose and all other projecting parts of my countenance flat with my cheeks.
How he had got to London we never knew.

As he made an easy escape from the coach-house at Dacrefield, it was always supposed that he simply followed the carriage, and had the wit to hide himself when we stopped on the road.

He was terribly tired.

He might well be thirsty! I levied large contributions on the box of rusks which Aunt Maria had left by my bedside, for his benefit, and he supped well.
Then he curled himself up in his own proper place at my feet.