lly! You're becoming a wonderful parent!" exclaimed Mrs.
Bryce; and they fled before her laughter.

CHAPTER THREE

Wally was surprised to find the trip to town shorter than usual. His
daughter conducted herself with great dignity, and never missed a thing.
An unbroken stream of conversation flowed from her lips, to the
amusement of the people in the seats near by.

There was one difficult moment, when in hurrying for their seats, Mrs.
Page spied them out.

"For goodness sake, Wally, where are you going?"

"Taking Isabelle to town."

"Without a nurse?"

"I have a governess, not a nurse," protested Isabelle, indignantly.

"Oh, excuse me," laughed Mrs. Page. "Where's Max?"

"Home in bed," replied Isabelle, before Wally had formed an excuse.

"I hear your infant introduced an Adam-and-Eve scene into her party,"
Mrs. Page continued.

Wally glanced anxiously at Isabelle.

"This is Tommy Page's mother," he explained.

"I know. He's a horrid boy," she answered, feelingly.

Mrs. Page retired after this, and Wally undertook to argue with his
daughter about unbecoming frankness.

"It's _true_," she protested.

"You don't have to tell everything you know."

"Don't you have to tell the truth?"

"Not when it hurts people's feelings."

She thought that over, and he wondered what she would make of it. The
little monkey seemed to remember every word that was said to her.

"Let's have a punkin coach taxi," she said when they arrived in town.

"What kind is that?"

"All yellow, like the Cinderella one."

"They don't have them at this station."

"Make them get us one," urged the young arrogant.

He laughed and they went out into the street and waited until a yellow
taxi came. As they took their seats in the coach, Isabelle gazed at her
father speculatively.

"I am Cinderella, an' you've got to be the Fairy God-mother, I s'pose,
but you don't look like her."

"Couldn't I be the Prince?" inquired Wally.

"No. Besides, he didn't ride in the coach," she corrected him,
scornfully.

They stopped at a drug shop to get a list of agencies, picked at random
from the telephone book. The first one was very depressing. There were
several governesses, but Isabelle would have none of them, and Wally did
not blame her. The second agency offered to summon a dozen candidates if
he would come back in two hours. He agreed to that, and made the same
arrangement with the third place.