... “Posset”--it ought to be brought in by an old woman, plump and garrulous, with rosy dimpling cheeks, wearing one of those two-horned head arrangements with folds of drapery round the chin--“Thank you, good Dame,” or--“Good my Nurse”--What a pity Nurse wasn’t either the Shakespeare or the historical kind--she had such a sharp bony little face and thin hair, and wore round hard hats when she took the babies out, instead of bonnets, so that she never looked cosily ancient.... The rain spattered impatiently at the window, but Ursula decided nevertheless not to light her first fire that morning. After tea was best--it would give her time to feel thoroughly chilled and forlorn, so as to make it more worth while; and the weather might get stormier, too, by tonight--the Equinoctial Gales--they came in September--or was it the Gulf Stream? No good to ask Miss Roberts; she’d presume on the fact that you had asked an intelligent question, to tell you much more than you ever wanted to hear about either.... And she’d look it up in the physical geography books, and some time next week: “By the way, Ursula, you were asking me about the Gulf Stream--” in her high, bright, perpetually-interested voice--long after you’d forgotten there was such a thing! Poor old Gums.... She was one of those who strove to make lessons as good as play-- A shuffling and chattering beyond the door, and Nurse came in, carrying Baby. A very pink and burbly child with scanty fair hair, replica of Stanley Watson, and Rossettishly called by him Honor Rose, clutched stumblingly at her hand. “Give over now, Rosie!” At once, Miss Roberts began to gather up books and rulers and pens, with an air of great energy: “All right, Nurse, we’re just off; give us half a minute, and you’ll see the last of us----” “There ain’t no call to hurry, Miss Roberts, if you’ve not done yet”--baby mysteriously upside down already, and Nurse with her mouth full of safety-pins; “I couldn’t very well keep them out in the rain till twelve o’clock----” “No, no, of course not----” “But you don’t disturb me if I don’t disturb you, and if you don’t mind my sewin’-machine presently.” She set baby upright again, with a little shake. “But indeed, we can get on quite well in the dining-room----” “It’s not cleared from breakfast yet. I noticed as I came in. That Minnie is a lazy fat thing----” Miss Roberts gathered up the last of the schoolroom into her arms, signed to Ursula to take the inkpot, and to Lottie to put the chairs back, and prepared to leave the nursery with a touch of pleasant dignity--“because really I could hardly let myself be drawn into a discussion with Nurse about the other servants----” “... Such a pity your walk was spoilt! Was Rosie a good little girl?--but I always think that September--Ursula, you’ve forgotten your compasses--No trouble at all to move, really--”