"Peg! Peg!" she cried breathlessly. "How beautiful of them! They have so
little themselves, but they have remembered the old custom, the sweet
old custom, and made _Him_ welcome. . . ." Her eyes roamed to the window,
and lit with sudden inspiration. She lifted her hand and pointed to a
distant steeple rising above the trees. "They have all gone off to
church--father and mother, and Amy and Fred--all the family together!
That's why the house is empty. And dinner is waiting for their return!"
She turned again to the table, her housekeeper's eye taking in at a
flash the paucity of its furnishings. "Peg! can this be _all_? _All_
that they have to eat . . . ? Let us look in the kitchen. . . . I must
make quite sure. . . ."
There was no feeling of embarrassment, no consciousness of impertinent
curiosity, in the girls' minds as they investigated the contents of
kitchen and larder. At that moment the house seemed their own, its
people their people; they were just two more members of a big family,
whose duty it was to look after the interests of their brothers and
sisters while they were away; and when evidences of poverty and
emptiness met them on every side, the two pairs of eyes met with a
mutual impulse, so strong that it needed not to be put into words.
In another moment they had left the house behind and were running
swiftly across the meadow towards the car. The chauffeur was busily
engaged on the tyre, Jack and Tom helping, or hindering as the case
might be.
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