"_Eleanor!_ Kitty shall never know that the washerwoman _has_ any children! She shall not _touch_, if I can help it, anything that is rude or squalid or ugly. No, no! My little flower shall be 'a gentlewoman of high quality'! And she shall marry the Duke of Lee, and go to the King's levee, or at least to the President's. I don't dare to say, you fierce republican, that I wish we had a King! Come here, Kitty my Pretty, and dance the 'Duke of Lee' with Tommy! He shall be the duke--you'd love to be a duke, wouldn't you, Tommy? See! now Kitty is a gentlewoman of high quality, and she picks up her petticoats--pick them up, Kitty!--and you make a low bow, so! left hand on your heart, Tom, right hand on your sword--so! Now dance, while I sing!" The boy is perhaps eight years old, the girl six. Here, too, is contrast; Tommy Lee, a sturdy, square-shouldered, rosy urchin, Kitty Ross a slender windflower of a child, with all her mother's lissome grace, but with the fair hair and steady gray eyes of her father. They are both on the pony digging their heels into his side and shouting to him to "Go on! go _won_, Rosy Nanty!" Rosinante meanwhile, standing firm, revolving in his mind whether to rub them off gently against the fence, or to lie down and make believe go to sleep. They are his second generation of children; he knows all about them. At the call, they slide down and come running. Everybody does what Mary Ross bids. Readily enough they take place opposite each other: they often dance together. Tom is a bit clumsy, but Kitty has grace enough for two, her mother thinks; indeed, so does Tom's mother. Now Mary Ross, leaning forward, claps her hands, and begins to sing: "When the Duke of Lee would marriéd be To a gentlewoman of high quality, How happy would that gentlewoman be When she's blest with the duke's good company! Marry oo diddy glu, diddy glu glu glu, Diddy oo oo oo, diddy goo goo goo, Marry oo diddy goo, diddy oo oo oo, Marry oo, diddy glu, diddy glu! "And she shall have silks and satins for to wear; And a coach and six for to take the air; And she shall ride in St. James's Square; And no lady in the city shall with her compare! Marry oo, etc. "And she shall go to the king's levee, And dance a minuet with his majestie; And she shall the very finest be Of all the great nobility! Marry oo," etc.[1] [1] Republished by permission of The Page Company from "The Wooing of Calvin Parks" and "Up to Calvin's," by Laura E. Richards. Copyright, 1908 and 1910, respectively, by The Page Company.] "Oh! Eleanor, aren't they darlings? Aren't they _darlings_? They simply _are_ the Duke and the Gentlewoman! What if--oh, Eleanor, dear!"