62 A DOG OF FLANDERS.

turned home after such visitations,
would sit silent and dreaming, not
caring to play, but gazing out at the
evening skies beyond the line of
the canal, very subdued, and almost
sad,

What was it? wondered Patrasche.
He thought it could not be good or
natural for the little lad to be so
grave, and in his dumb fashion he
tried all he could to keep Nello by
him in the sunny fields or in the busy
market-place. But to the churches
Nello would go: most often of all
would he go to the great cathedral ;
and Patrasche, left without on the
stones by the iron fragments of
Quentin Matsys’ gate, would stretch
himself and yawn and sigh, and even