Then the old man became a little more friendly, and said: “I beg your pardon, I thought you were goblins. They never will let me alone. But you must allow, it was rather an unusual way of paying a morning call.” And the creature bowed conciliatingly.
“It was, indeed,” answered Richard. “I wish you had turned the door to us instead of the hearthstone.” For he did not trust the old man. “But,” he added, “I hope you will forgive us.”
“Oh, certainly, certainly, my dear young people! Use your freedom. But such young people have no business to be out alone. It is against the rules.”
“But what is one to do—I mean two to do—when they can’t help it?”
“Yes, yes, of course; but now, you know, I must take charge of you. So you sit there, young gentleman; and you sit there, young lady.”
He put a chair for one at one side of the hearth, and for the other at the other side, and then drew his chair between them. The cat got upon his hump, and then set up her own. So here was a wall that would let through no moonshine. But although both Richard and Alice were very much amused, they did not like to be parted in this peremptory manner. Still they thought it better not to anger the old man any more—in his own house, too.
But he had been once angered, and that was once too often, for he had made it a rule never to forgive without taking it out in humiliation.
It was so disagreeable to have him sitting there between them, that they felt as if they were far asunder. In order to get the better of the fancy, they