my mother," explained the youngster.

"You see," said Wally, "Isabelle is a little devil. You might as well
know the worst at once. She's got no manners at all, and she's spoiled
to death."

"Wally, you don't have to tell everything you know," quoted Isabelle,
sharply.

"Upon my word!" said Miss Barnes. "How old is she?"

"She's just had her fourth birthday."

"But she needs a nurse, not a governess."

"I won't have a nurse. I want you."

"She's had a lot of women, mostly old ones. I told Mrs. Bryce I thought
she ought to have a young woman with her, and she told me that if I knew
so much about it, I could get her a governess myself."

"I see," said Miss Barnes; "and just what do you want her governess to
do?"

"Ride and swim with her, and keep her out of mischief. I suppose you
would teach her something--letters and counting, and all that?"

"A governess usually does," she smiled.

"You would have full charge of her. We live in the country from April
till Thanksgiving, and in town the rest of the time."

"Come on, Ann, let's go; I'm tired," interrupted Isabelle.

"But you aren't letting this baby decide who is to take care of her?"
she protested.

"I thought it was better. She gets rid of one a month, so in the end she
does decide."

"But it's so absurd."

"We're--we're an absurd family," he admitted, gravely.

"Don't talk, Wally; come on."

"What does she call you?" Miss Barnes inquired.

"Wally. My name is Walter, but every one calls me Wally. She calls her
mother Max. We try to break her of it, but we can't."

Miss Barnes shook her head.

"I want to be a governess, you know, not a nurse."

Isabelle realized that a crisis was at hand.

"Sometimes I'm nice, aren't I, Wally?" she appealed.

Miss Barnes could not have told why, but for the first time this
abnormal, prissy child, with her self-assurance, and her impertinence,
caught at her sympathies. Wally saw that she wavered.

"Suppose that we call it an experiment for a month. I'll pay a hundred
dollars a month. Come out with us this afternoon and try it. She's the
limit of a kid, but she's got a lot of sense for her age, and maybe
she'd be all right if somebody just gave her mind to her."

"I'm willing to try it for a month, if I may have full charge of her.
Would her mother agree to that?"

"Oh, Max is never home; besides, she never sees me," spoke up the child.

"She does see you," protested Wally.

Isabelle made no reply, bu