her complexion was still as clear and pink as
a girl's; and her somewhat wide mouth was garnished by the whitest
of teeth. It was Dawson's boast that she had never sat in a
dentist's chair in her life.
"I am sixty-five if I am a day," she would say, with a quick little
birdlike nod that always emphasised her statements; "but there,
mother was eighty-three when the palsy took her, and she hadn't a
gap in her mouth, dear soul."
Malcolm always kissed his old nurse, for there was a warm attachment
between them; and indeed he never forgot that he had owed all his
childish comfort to her.
"Blessed is he who expecteth nothing," observes the wise man, and
Malcolm, who had indulged in moderate expectations in which the
teapot loomed largely, was somewhat surprised by the agreeable sight
of quite a tasteful little dinner-table laid for two, with a half-
filled vase in the centre for which the poppies were evidently
intended. Anna smiled delightedly when she saw his face, and at once
proceeded to arrange her flowers, while Dawson bustled about and
rang the bell, and chattered like an amiable magpie.
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