" Her mien
delicately informed him that while in London his caprices would be her
law, which she would obey without seeking to comprehend.
"Well," he went on, "I expect they'd like the parks as well as
anything. Suppose we take 'em and show 'em one of the parks? Shall we?
Besides, they must have fresh air."
"All right," Nellie agreed. "But how far will it be?"
"Oh!" said Edward Henry, "we'll crowd into a taxi."
They crowded into a taxi, and the children found their father in
high spirits. Maisie mentioned the doll.... In a minute the taxi had
stopped in front of a toy-shop surpassing dreams, and they invaded
the toy-shop like an army. When they emerged, after a considerable
interval, nurse was carrying an enormous doll, and Nellie was carrying
Maisie, and Ralph was lovingly stroking the doll's real shoes. Robert
kept a profound silence--a silence which had begun in the train.
"You haven't got much to say, Robert," his father remarked, when the
taxi set off again.
"I know," said Robert, gruffly. Among other things, he resented his
best clothes on a week-day.
"What do you think of London?"
"I don't know," said Robert.
His eyes never left the window of the taxi.
Then they visited the theatre--a very fatiguing enterprise, and also,
for Edward Henry, a very nervous one. He was as awkward in displaying
that inchoate theatre as a newly-made father with his first-born.
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