'
The object of their admiration was seen no more till the middle of
dinner, when all three appeared, immoderately dusty; and no wonder,
for the organist had employed them to climb, sweep fashion, into the
biggest organ-pipe to investigate the cause of a bronchial affection
of long standing,--which turned out to be a dead bat caught in a
tenacious cobweb.
Shortly after, the guest was found assisting Angela in a tableau,
where a pen-wiper doll in nun's costume was enacting the exorcism of
the said bat, in a cave built of wooden bricks.
Clement was undecided whether to condemn or admire; and Geraldine, to
whom Edgar had lent some volumes of Ruskin, meditated on the
grotesque.
Before there had been time for the fanciful sport to become rough
comedy, Lance had called off his friend to see the potteries; and to
poor Cherry's horror, she found that Robina had been swept off in the
torrent of boyhood. Clement, pitying her despair and self-reproach,
magnanimously offered to follow, and either bring the little maid
back, or keep her out of harm's way; and for some time Cherry reposed
in the conviction that 'Tina was as good as a girl any day.
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