hen; now for the other! Three guesses, Kitty, for a really
convulsing piece of local gossip."

"Maud is engaged?"

"Not yet! You can guess that again later on! This special piece of
news is not about our family at all. Some one else! Guess again!"

"Some one I know well?"

"No!"

"Slightly?"

"No!"

"Not at all?"

"Yes!"

"Then how on earth can I possibly--"

"It isn't necessary to know the person. No one knows him yet, but we
soon shall. He is coming to--to--can't you guess? Think of the empty
houses near here!"

"The Grange!" cried Kit, and clapped her hands with delight. "Some one
has bought the Grange! How sweet of him! Now we shall have something
to look at. He is coming soon, you say--oh, what fun! We can watch the
furniture unload, and the family arrive. Who are they, and how many may
they be? Lots of girls, I hope--the right sort, with plenty of fun in
them, and pony-carriages of their own, in which they can drive us
about!"

"We don't know a single thing about them, and can't find out. The man
is called Vanburgh, which is all right so far as it goes, but whether he
is married or a bachelor--"

"Of course he is married! A bachelor would never dare to take a house
like the Grange. It would be downright wicked! He is a married man,
with a grey beard, and a fat wife, and four beauteous daughters. I see
them now before me, as in a mirror!" Kitty shut her eyes behind the
spectacles, and screwed up her face into a grimace which was meant to be
vague and visionary, but fell a long way short of success. She was fond
of indulging in flights of fancy, and her friends waited for her
utterances with smiling delight.

"Yes, yes, I see them all! Veronique, the eldest, is a stately beauty,
tall and slender, with lustrous Spanish eyes, and locks--"

"Black as the raven's wing." Chrissie's murmur seemed a fitting climax
to the description, but the Visionary objected to be interrupted, and
turning scornful eyes upon her, said icily--

"Quite the contrary. Bright as pure gold! She knows not the meaning of
fear, and rides an Arab charger, who knows every movement of her
mistress's hand. She is betrothed to the scion of a noble house, and
will shortly be led to the hymeneal altar, when we shall attend as maids
of honour, clad in the sheen of satin and glimmer of pearls. Gabriella,
the second, is _mignonne_ in stature, with a wee, winsome face--"

But at this point in the descriptio