Page:Dark Hester.djvu/52

‘When things are dead they never come back, Robin; I’ve told you that already.’ Hester checked the sentimental tendency with decision. ‘It’s very kind of Grannie to say she’ll make you a pond and a fountain to play with, and the fish will love it, of course. Jeremy died because he was old and when things are old it’s much better they should go to sleep. He had a very happy life and went to sleep. It’s silly, you know, to go on thinking about things that can’t be helped. Think of all the nice things that are going to happen instead. You are to have a garden of your own, as well as Grannie’s, and if you like you shall have a dog just like Jeremy.’

Robin sat, very straight, on his grandmother’s knee, his eyes downcast, his little face firmly set, and Monica saw that he was frightened.

‘It’s such a nice garden, The Crofts’s,’ she said, diverting Hester’s attention from Robin’s case, shielding him, giving him time—with Clive she had always known that it was merely a question of gently giving him time.—‘They have done some very funny things to it—the good people who lived there—but it’s charmingly placed under the hill and almost anything could be made of it.—You are quite sure it won’t tire Clive to go up and