“Thank you, Mrs. Parrot, for taking so much trouble,” exclaimed Holdsworth gleefully. “What time is it now? A quarter to three. I shall just have time to walk into the High Street and buy a cake. She will like a cake--a plum-cake I think; and shall I get some marmalade? Yes, she will enjoy marmalade--and what else? Tell me, Mrs. Parrot; what do little children like?” “Why, mostly sweet things, sir. I guess the marmalade’ll take Miss Nelly’s fancy. But don’t you trouble, sir; I can run out and buy you what you want.” “No--I am obliged to you. There are other things she might like which I shouldn’t be able to remember without seeing them. We will have tea at four, Mrs. Parrot. I shall be back in twenty minutes.” Mrs. Parrot watched him leave the house and walk down the road as swiftly as he could, leaning on his stick. “Well, if iver I saw the like of this!” she exclaimed aloud. “I’ll not tell mother; it might scare her. There’s something downright sing’ler in the notion of a stranger takin’ all this trouble, and goin’ almost wild-like all along of a little gal he never saw before yisterday. Some folks ’ud call it alarmin’.” _Her_ nerves, however, were equal to the occasion; for whilst Holdsworth was away, she journeyed upstairs and unlocked a little glass-fronted cupboard, screwed into a corner of her bedroom, from which she took a teapot, a cream-jug, and two cups and saucers of brilliantly-coloured china; likewise from an open box under her bed a tray magnificently decorated with mother-of-pearl birds of paradise seated on pink trees, and surrounded by a prospect not to be paralleled on this side the moon. She returned to the kitchen with these things, and then entered the garden and picked a bouquet of sweet-scented flowers, with which she furnished the tray. Then she set to work upon a loaf of bread, and produced in no time a number of thin and appetising slices; which done, and the tray being arranged, she fell back a step to admire the effect. At a quarter-past three Holdsworth returned, followed by a boy with his arms full of bags. He called to Mrs. Parrot, who came out and took the bags from the boy, and placed them upon the dining-room table. More things than edibles had been purchased; though of these there was enough to give an evening party upon--fruit, cakes, pots of jam, gingerbread-nuts, sweetmeats, tarts; there was a doll; there was also a horse and cart; and there was an immense box of bricks. Mrs. Parrot turned pale, and was much too astonished to speak, as Holdsworth thrust the bags and pots, the buns and the tarts, into her arms, and requested her to take them at once into the kitchen, and display them on plates to the very best advantage, ready for the little one when the bell should ring for tea. He then hid the toys in a closet, and stationed himself at the window to watch for Nelly.