them looked out on to the garden,
the other had a lovely view far away over the downs, to where one knew
the sea _was_, though one could not see it. But fond as Lena was of
pretty views, she did not run to the window to look out. She stood still
for a moment and then ran forward eagerly to the end of the room, where
the bed was placed, crying out with delight,

"'Oh, that's the bed--that's the very bed you told me about, dear Mrs.
Denny--the bed I did so want to sleep in. Thank you so much for
remembering about it. Oh, how _beautiful_ it is--I shouldn't mind being
ill if I was in that bed.'

"It really was a rather wonderful bed. It was a regular four-poster, if
you know what that is--a bed with wooden posts at each corner, and
curtains running all round, so that once you were inside it, you could
if you liked draw them so close that it was like being in a tent."

"I know," said Maudie, "I've seen beds like that. But I don't think
Hoodie and the boys have--let me see; oh yes, I can tell them what it's
like. It's like the bed in our _best_ doll-house--the one with pink
curtains trimmed with white. You know?"

"Yes," said Hoodie, "the one where Miss Victoria has been so ill in,
since she's got too ugly to sit in the drawing-room. I know."

"But it's such a weeny bed," said Hec, "was zour little girl no bigger
than zat little dolly, Cousin Magdalen?"

"_Of course_," said Maudie, hastily. "How stupid you are, Hec."

"Maudie," said her godmother, and Maudie got very red. "Maudie meant it
was the same _shape_ as that, but much bigger, Hec dear. Just the same
as the piano in the study is the same shape as the one in the
doll-house, only much bigger."

"Oh zes," said Hec.

"A great deal bigger than any of the beds people have now," continued
Magdalen. "It was really big enough to have held six little Lenas
instead of one. But it was the curtains that made it so particularly
wonderful. They were very old, but the colours were still quite bright,
they had been washed so carefully. And the pattern was something I
really could not describe if I tried--it was the most delicious muddle
of flowers, and trailing leaves and birds, and here and there a sort of
little basket-work pattern that looked like a summer-house or the
entrance to a grotto.

"Lena stood feasting her eyes upon these marvellous curtains.

"'I never did see anything so nice,' she said. 'Can I see the pictures
when I'm _in_ the bed, Mrs. Denny?'

"'Oh y