She looked at her watch. "We've got another half-hour before they come." "Kitty, I believe you're afraid of them?" "Yes, Robert, I'm afraid." "What? Of two small children?" "What are they like? I haven't asked you that." "Well, Janet's a queer, uncanny little person, rather long for her age and very thin----" "Like you?" "Like me. At first you think she's all legs. Then you see a little white face with enormous eyes that look at you as if she was wondering what you are." He smiled. His mind had gone off, away from her, to the contemplation of his little daughter. "I think she is clever, but one never knows. We have to handle her very carefully. Barbara's all right. You can pitch her about like anything." "What is Barbara like?" "Barbara? She's round and fat and going to be pretty, like----" "Like her mother?" "No, like Janey, if Janey was fat. They're both a little difficult to manage. If you reprove Barbara, she bursts out laughing in your face. If you even hint to Janet that you disapprove of her, she goes away somewhere and weeps." "Poor little thing. I'm afraid," said Kitty sadly, "they're not so very small." "Well, Janet, I believe, is seven, and Barbara is five." "Barbara is five. And, oh dear me, Janet is seven." "Is that such a very formidable age?" She laughed uneasily. "Yes. That's the age when they begin to take notice, isn't it?" "Oh, no, they do that when they're babies. Even Barbara's grown out of that. I say, Kitty, what a lot you know." "Don't, Robert." She looked at him imploringly and put her hand in his. "I won't, if you'll only tell me what I'm not to do." "You're not to tease me about the things you think I don't know. I used to nurse my little sisters, when I wasn't very big myself. I can't nurse Janet, or Barbara, can I?" "Why not?" "They wouldn't let me. They're too old. It won't be the same thing at all." "Well," said Robert, and paused, hiding from her the thing that was in his mind. "Oh, Robert, I do wish, I do wish they were really small." "I'm sorry, Kitty. But perhaps----" He could not hide anything from Kitty. "No, Robert," she said, "I'm afraid there won't be any perhaps. That's one of the things I meant to tell you. But I'm not bothering about that. I meant--if they were little--little things, I shouldn't be so dreadfully afraid of them." "Why? What do you think they'll do to you, Kitty?" "I--don't--know." "You needn't be alarmed. I believe they're very well-behaved. Jane has brought them up quite nicely." "What is Jane going to do?" "Ah--that's what I wanted to ask you about." "You needn't ask me. You want her to stay and look after them just the same?" "No, not just the same. I want her to stay and she won't. She says it wouldn't be fair to you." "But--if she only would, that would make it all so easy. You see, I could look after you, and she could look after them." "You don't want to be bored with them?" "You know that isn't what I mean. I don't want them to suffer."