Her visit to Oxford opened up whole vistas of new possibilities. Here were two real boys with whom she had been allowed to play. It is true that they did not fall into her scheme with that instant understanding and obedience to which she was accustomed from her parents, but still they played after a fashion, a new and piquant fashion, and Herrick went back to the King’s Arms after her visit to Holywell chattering incessantly of "Monkagu" and "Emmund," and demanding an instant return to their society. She wept bitterly when she found she could not go back that night, and declared that Mr. Woolykneeze and Umpy dear were equally upset. Her father suggested that these gentlemen might stroll round by themselves, when Herrick, regarding him with tearful astonishment, sobbed out: "They’d never be so unkind as to go wivout me. Besides, Umpy dear might spill something on your uncle’s best carpet. Can’t _I_ take them?" "Not to-night, I fear." "Why?" "Because, you see, we’ve been already; it would be troublesome to go twice." "Why would it be troublesome? I want to play with those little boys again." "They’re not very little boys, you know. They’re a great deal bigger than you are. Perhaps they don’t care to play with little girls." At this Herrick opened her tearful eyes wide, repeating in astonishment, "Not care to play wiv _me_? Why not?" "Well, you see, boys don’t always care for the same games that girls like." "But they’re nice boys." "I’m glad to hear it; still, you know, even nice boys don’t always care to play with little girls." Herrick sighed deeply. It was a horrid suggestion, the more so that she felt secretly assured that the princess game had not been a wild success. "I want to see the varlet again," she persisted. "Which is the varlet?" "The littler one. I do want him to play wiv me." "Perhaps he will to-morrow." "D’rectly after breakfas’, mind; you promise." William Wycherly promised, and Herrick went to bed to dream that "Emmund" and "Monkagu" were walking down Holywell arm-in-arm with Umpy dear and Mr. Woolykneeze, and that they all four called at the hotel to take her for a walk in St. John’s Gardens. Next morning Herrick woke very early. Janet, her Scottish nurse, was having a fortnight’s holiday, therefore at that time her mother was her sole guardian and attendant. Her bed was in a little dressing-room off that of her mother, the door between the two rooms being left open. For a little while Herrick was content to sit up and wonder at the floors of the King’s Arms Hotel, which are not as ordinary floors, but slope up and down in all sorts of unexpected directions. But she soon got tired of this, and so effectually roused her devoted parents that the three of them were down in the coffee-room and had finished breakfast by half-past eight.