“Well, run along to the nursery now; you have been here long enough.”

Milly jumped down from her seat obediently; then catching hold of her uncle’s hand as he was moving away, she said,—­

“Just one thing more I want to show you, uncle.  I can see the high-road for such a long way over there, and when it is not quite so dark I sit and watch for Tommy—­that’s Maxwell’s probable son, you know.  I should be so glad if I were to see him coming along one day with his head hanging down, and all ragged and torn.  He is sure to come some day—­God will bring him—­and if I see him coming first, I shall run off quick to Maxwell and tell him, and then he will run out to meet him.  Won’t it be lovely?”

And with shining eyes Milly shook back her brown curls and looked up into her uncle’s face for sympathy.  He patted her head, the nearest approach to a caress that he ever gave her, and left her without saying a word.

Another day, later still, he came upon her at the staircase window.  He was dining out that night, and was just leaving the house, but stopped as he noticed his little niece earnestly waving her handkerchief up at the window.

“What are you doing now?” he inquired as he passed down the stairs.  Milly turned round, her little face flushed, and eyes looking very sweet and serious.

“I was just waving to God, Uncle Edward.  I thought I saw Him looking down at me from the sky.”

Sir Edward passed on, muttering inaudibly,—­

“I believe that child lives in the presence of God from morning to night”.

CHAPTER V.

A PRODIGAL.

“Uncle Edward, nurse and I are going shopping; would you like us to buy you anything?  We are going in the dog-cart with Harris.”

Milly was dancing up and down on the rug inside the front door as she spoke.  It was a bright, frosty morning, and Sir Edward was leaving the breakfast-room with the newspaper and a large packet of letters in his hand.  He stopped and glanced at the little fur-clad figure as she stood there, eager anticipation written on her face, and his thoughts went back to the time when he as a boy looked upon a day’s visit to the neighboring town—­nine miles away—­as one of his greatest pleasures.

“Yes,” he said, slowly fumbling in his waistcoat pocket; “you can get me some pens and blotting paper at the stationer’s.  I will write down the kind I want, and here is the money.  Keep the change, and buy anything you like with it.”

Milly’s cheeks flushed with delight as she took the money—­

“What a lot it will buy!” she said.  “Thank you very much indeed.  I was wanting to buy something my own self, and I’ve only a little cook gave me, but now I shall be quite rich.”

It was late in the afternoon when nurse and her little charge drove back, and Sir Edward met them coming up the avenue.  Milly’s face was clouded, and there were traces of tears on her cheeks, and this was such an unusual sight that Sir Edward inquired of the nurse what was the matter.