"Oh, Maurice! we are safe in our own country," she said, in a tone
of ecstasy, to the little boy.
Maurice, however,--cold, tired, still seasick from his passage
across the Channel,--saw nothing delightful in this fact.
"I'm very hungry, Cecile," he said, "and I'm very cold. How soon
shall we find breakfast and a night's lodging?"
"Maurice, dear, it is quite early in the day; we don't want to think
of a night's lodging for many hours yet."
"But we passed through a town, a great big town," objected Maurice;
"why did you not look for a night's lodging there, Cecile?"
"'Twasn't in my 'greement, Maurice, darling. I promised, promised
faithful when I went on this search, that we'd stay in little
villages and small tiny inns, and every place looked big in that
town. But we'll soon find a place, Maurice, and then you shall have
breakfast. Toby will take us to a village very soon."
All Toby's temporary degeneration of character had vanished since
his walk to Dover. He was as alert as ever in his care of Maurice, as
anxiously solicitous for Cecile's benefit, and had also developed a
remarkable and valuable faculty for finding small towns and out-of-
the-way villages, where Cecile's slender store of money could be
spent to the best advantage.
On board the small boat which had brought the children across the
Channel, Cecile's piquant and yet pathetic face had won the captain's
good favor. He had not only given all three their passage for
nothing, but had got the little girl to confide sufficiently in
him to find out that she carried money with her.
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