the hour of five
As they neared home , Harold found himself , to his surprise , sitting up and chatting to his new friend like man to man ; and before he was dropped at a convenient gap in the garden hedge , he had promised that when Selina gave her first public tea-party , little Miss Larkin should be invited to come and bring ha whole sawdust family along with her ; and the farmer appeared as pleased and proud as if he hat been asked to a garden-party at Marlborough House . Really , those Olympians have certain good points , far down in them . I shall have to leave off abusing them some day . At the hour of five , Selina , having spent the afternoon searching for Harold in all his accustomed haunts , sat down disconsolately to tea with her dolls , who ungenerously refused to wait beyond the appointed hour . The wooden tea-things seemed more chipped than usual ; and the dolls themselves had more of wax and sawdust , and less of human colour and intelligence about them , than she ever remembered before . It was then that Harold burst in , very dusty , his stockings at his heels , and the channels ploughed by tears still showing on his grimy cheeks ; and Selina was at last permitted to know that he had been thinking of her ever since his ill-judged exhibition of temper , and that his sulks had not been the genuine article , nor had he gone frogging by himself . It was a very happy hostess who dispensed hospitality that evening to a glassy-eyed stiff-kneed circle ; and many a dollish gaucherie , that would have been severely checked on ordinary occasions , was as much overlooked as if it had been a birthday .