The canister with its contents
would be placed in silence upon the Professor's table. Malvina on
returning would be confronted by a pair of stern, unsympathetic
boots. The corners of the fairy mouth would droop in lines
suggestive of penitence and contrition.
Had the Professor been firm she would have yielded. But from the
black accusing boots the Professor could not keep his eyes from
wandering to the guilty white feet, and at once in his heart
becoming "counsel for the defence." Must get a pair of sandals next
time he went to Oxford. Anyhow, something more dainty than those
grim, uncompromising boots.
Besides, it was not often that Malvina ventured beyond the orchard.
At least not during the day time--perhaps one ought to say not
during that part of the day time when the village was astir. For
Malvina appears to have been an early riser. Somewhere about the
middle of the night, as any Christian body would have timed it, Mrs.
Muldoon--waking and sleeping during this period in a state of high
nervous tension--would hear the sound of a softly opened door;
peeping from a raised corner of the blind, would catch a glimpse of
fluttering garments that seemed to melt into the dawn; would hear
coming fainter and fainter from the uplands an unknown song,
mingling with the answering voices of the birds.
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