Mother and auntie were later than they had expected of returning from their drive. They had gone a long way, and coming back it was mostly up-hill.
"Fritz will be thinking we have forgotten him," said mother, looking at her watch, "but I told him to be sure to wait till we came. He is too little to go home alone yet, at least till he knows his way quite well or can speak enough to ask."
"We might have told Celia and Denny to call for him, as they are out with Mademoiselle," said auntie.
Just then in turning a corner, for they were quite in the town now, auntie's eyes caught sight of the narrow street where the old curiosity shop was.
"By the by," she said, "I should so like to ask about that picture. I told you about it, you remember, May?"--May, you know, was the children's mother's name--"have we time to go that way?"
"I'm afraid not; we are late already," said mother. "I'm so sorry."
"Oh, never mind, another day will do quite well," said auntie, cheerfully.
So they drove home, quickly, just stopping a moment to pick up Fritz, who was waiting for them at the gate of his school.
If they _had_ happened to go round by the old curiosity shop, how surprised they would have been; but what a great deal of trouble it would have saved them, as you shall hear.
Lisa met them as they got home, with a long story about the table and the flowers and the stupidness of François, which mother and auntie could hardly help laughing at.
"Never mind, Lisa," said mother; "it will do very well, I am sure. Where are the children?"
"Upstairs, Miladi, taking off their things. They have just come in," said Lisa, never thinking, somehow, as mother said the "children," but that she was talking of Celia and Denny. For, somehow, in this family--in every family there are little habits of the kind--Baby was not often spoken of among "the children." They had all got so used to the name of Herr Baby, which Lisa had called him by since he was quite a wee baby, that he was seldom spoken of by any other, and often Baby himself would talk gravely about "the children," without any one seeming to think it odd.
"Upstairs, are they?" said mother. "Well, run off, Fritz, dear, and try and get some of your lessons done before tea. Mademoiselle will help you a little, I daresay, before she goes."