Towards the end of the meal, her clear little voice might have been heard calling to her uncle.

“Uncle William, you wishes me to have a whole holiday; doesn’t you?  You pwomised I is to have a whole holiday to-day.”

Now, Mrs. Dolman had felt very uncomfortable about Diana during her hot walk to the village that morning.  She had not at all minded punishing her, but when she saw her lying white and unconscious in her arms, she had certainly gone through a terrible moment, and had, perhaps, in the whole course of her life, never felt so thankful as when the black eyes opened wide, and the little voice sounded once again.  The look, too, that Diana had given her on this occasion she could not quite efface from her recollection.  On the whole, therefore, she felt inclined to be gentle to the little girl, and when she pleaded for a holiday Mrs. Dolman did not say a word to interfere.

“It is a very hot day, and Diana was not quite well this morning,” said Mr. Dolman, glancing first at his wife and then at Miss Ramsay, “so, all things considered, perhaps—­”

“Thank you, uncle,” interrupted Diana, “it’s kite settled, and you isn’t half a bad sort of old man.  And now, p’ease, I want Orion to have a holiday too.”

“Oh, that’s another matter!” interrupted Miss Ramsay.  “Orion is in perfect health to-day, and as he is extremely backward for his age—­”

“But the heat of the day, and the child being so young,” put in Mr. Dolman.

“I’d be much happier if I had Orion with me,” continued Diana, “and it’s ’portant my being happy; isn’t it, Uncle William?  P’ease, Uncle William, say that Orion may have a holiday.”

“I will give leave if your aunt and Miss Ramsay will,” he replied.

“Oh, don’t ask me!” said Mrs. Dolman, rising hastily as she spoke.  “I wash my hands of the pair.”

“She washes her hands of the pair, so she don’t count,” said Diana.  “Is we to have a holiday, Uncle William?  I is, but is Orion, too?  That’s the ’portant part,” she added.

“I have no objection,” said Miss Ramsay, who thought it best to close this scene as quickly as possible.

Orion uttered a shout of rapture, Diana rushed up to him, clutched him round the neck, and pulled him from the room.

Nearly wild with glee, they both ran helter-skelter out of the house, into the cool shrubbery beyond.

“Now, Orion,” said Diana, the moment they found themselves alone, “you must cool down and not ’cite yourself too much.  We has a ter’ble lot of work to do.  I has got my holiday through awfu’ suff’in’.  I was beated and killed, and I has come fresh to life again.  Course I’s in a wage, and I’s got a holiday for you and for me ’cos we must do our work.  Wun upstairs, Orion, and bwing down your big straw hat and mine, and we’ll go and find them.”

Orion knew perfectly well what “them” meant.  He looked hard at Diana, saw something in her eyes which she could not suppress, and, with a sigh of mingled pleasure and alarm ran off to do her bidding.  He returned in less than a minute with his large sailor hat stuck on the back of his head, and a white sun-bonnet for Diana.  Diana’s sun-bonnet had a black bow at the back and black strings.