Mary is gone to bed." "Perhaps he thinks you are gone to the vicarage and that Mary is sitting up for you in the drawing-room," suggested Nellie with much good sense.
"Well, he can't come in, can he, mamma ?" "Certainly not," said her mother.

"But I think you had much better go to bed, my dear.

It is half-past nine." She spoke indistinctly, almost thickly, and seemed to be making a violent effort to control herself.

But Nellie had settled down upon her stool again, and did not notice her mother.
"Oh not yet," said she.

"I have not nearly finished about the sea-serpent.