Once Upon A Dream Read Online Free

storm. Being stranded unexpectedly is a tedious business, is it not, though it is to be hoped we are not doomed to be stranded as
    long as Robinson Crusoe was on his island."
    That was the book Georgette had tossed aside earlier and declared to be stupid. She must have told the lady about it—and no doubt about everything
    else that occupied every last corner of her crowded mind.
    "It is kind of you to be so gracious, ma'am," he said before turning his eyes back upon his daughter, who was smiling brightly in the hope, no doubt, of
    averting any wrath he might still be feeling. "You were fortunate, Georgette, not to be snatched by some villainous cutthroat and borne off across his
    horse's back, never to be heard from again."
    "Oh, Papa," she said, "what villain would be out in this weather? I have been making the acquaintance of Miss Thompson, and I have been eating her cakes,
    though I did not intend to and did not even realize I was doing it until I noticed the sweetness in my mouth. I thought you would be cross if you
    discovered that I had invited myself to tea, whereas you would not be quite so annoyed at my merely holding a friendly conversation with a fellow guest who
    was alone and in need of company to keep her mind off the thunder."
    She smiled even more brightly.
    He set a hand on her shoulder. "You certainly will not want any more tea, then," he said. "Probably you will not even need any dinner this evening. Perhaps
    I will have it served just to Robert and Mrs. Harris and myself."
    "You would not do that, Papa," she said, her tone wheedling. "I am sorry to have worried you, but Nurse was looking exasperated because Robbie was taking a
    while to go to sleep and I wanted to sit on his bed to soothe him but I was fidgeting instead, and then I was fidgeting on my own bed because I had nothing
    to do. I decided to go to your room, but then I remembered that you were nursing your bad temper, mainly on account of Robbie's having been terrified and
    my having asked you a stream of questions about thunder and lightning and why they do not usually happen together even though they are really the same
    thing. So I decided to be considerate and leave you alone and came down here instead."
    It was appalling to think of what she was revealing to Miss Thompson—
you were nursing your bad temper.
Out of the mouths of babes…
    "You have my thanks," he said dryly. "But now you may go back up to reassure Mrs. Harris, whom I left a few minutes ago in a state of alarm. Tiptoe and
    whisper, however. Robert is asleep."
    She went.
    "Miss Thompson," he said, "I do apologize, both for my intrusion and for your having had to put up with my daughter when I expect you were looking forward
    to a relaxed and quiet tea. She is…difficult. And precious," he hastened to add, though he could hear exasperation in his voice.
    "Oh, very precious, I think," she said, her eyes twinkling at him and revealing rather attractive fine laugh lines at their outer corners. "And, yes,
    difficult, I can imagine, to the people who are responsible for her upbringing. I found her a delight."
    "It is remarkably decent of you to say so," he said. "Had you been expecting to reach your destination today?"
    ""I had," she said, looking ruefully toward the windows. "It is not going to happen, however, and my hope is now fixed upon tomorrow. One day's delay is
    tedious. Another would be severely annoying."
    "And a great deal more delay, as was the case for Robinson Crusoe," he said, "would be plain stupid—in my daughter's opinion, anyway."
    She laughed. "I must confess," she said, "that it was never my favorite book."
    "Or mine, though it is utter heresy to say so of an acknowledged classic." He laughed with her. "But I believe it was my saying so that persuaded Georgette
    to choose it as one of her traveling books."
    "That is perfectly understandable," she said. "You are on a long journey?"
    "We have been on the road for three days," he said. "This was to have been