because — because she looks at me with her eyes bent.”

Then gradually she accepted Tilly as belonging to the household, never as a person.

For the first weeks, the black eyes of the child were for ever on the watch.

Brangwen, good-humoured but impatient, spoiled by Tilly, was an easy blusterer. If for a few minutes he upset the household with his noisy impatience, he found at the end the child glowering at him with intense black eyes, and she was sure to dart forward her little head, like a serpent, with her biting:

“Go away.”

“I'm not going away,” he shouted, irritated at last. “Go yourself — hustle — stir thysen — hop.