What could it have been?
"I thought it best not to force their confidence, babies though they
are," she reflected. "But perhaps if I had persuaded them very tenderly,
they would have told me. Was I too severe and strict with them, the
darlings? I meant to act for the best, but I am a foolish old woman--if
only the punishment of my mistakes could fall on me alone! Ah dear, ah
dear!--it would have been hard to lose them by death, but in that case I
should have felt that they were going to their father and mother; while
_now_--it is awful to picture where they may be, or what may have become
of them! Oh Toby, is it you, you poor little dog?" for just at this
moment Toby rubbed himself against her foot, looking up in her face with
a sad wistful expression in his bright eyes. "Oh Toby, Toby," said
Grandmamma, "I wonder if you could tell us anything to clear up this
dreadful mystery if you could talk."
But Toby only wagged his tail--he was very sad too, but he had far too
much self-respect _not_ to wag his tail when he was kindly spoken to,
however depressed he might be feeling--and looked up again, blinking his
eyes behind their shaggy veil.
"Oh Toby," said poor Grandmamma again, as if she really did not know
what else to say.
And Grandpapa, half ashamed of his own prostration, roused himself to
try to say a cheering word or two.
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