er home to her parents this very night,' declared Aunt
Margarine; 'she shall not stay here to pervert our happy household with
her miserable _gewgaws_!'

Here Priscilla found her tongue. 'Do you think I _want_ to stay?' she
said proudly; 'I see now that you only wanted to have me here
because--because of the horrid jewels, and I never knew they were false,
and I let you have them all, every one, you know I did; and I wanted you
to mind what I said and not trouble about picking them up, but you
_would_ do it! And now you all turn round upon me like this! What have I
done to be treated so? What have I done?'

'Bravo, Prissie!' cried Dick. 'Mother, if you ask me, I think it serves
us all jolly well right, and it's a downright shame to bullyrag poor
Prissie in this way!'

'I _don't_ ask you,' retorted his mother, sharply; 'so you will kindly
keep your opinions to yourself.'

'Tra-la-la!' sang rude Dick, 'we are a united family--we are, we are, we
_are_!'--a vulgar refrain he had picked up at one of the burlesque
theatres he was only too fond of frequenting.

But Priscilla came to him and held out her hand quite gratefully and
humbly. 'Thank you, Dick,' she said; '_you_ are kind, at all events. And
I am sorry you couldn't have your horse-shoe pin!'

'Oh, _hang_ the horse-shoe pin!' exclaimed Dick, and poor Priscilla was
so thoroughly cast down that she quite forgot to reprove him.

She was not sent home that night after all, for Dick protested against
it in such strong terms that even Aunt Margarine saw that she must give
way; but early on the following morning Priscilla quitted her aunt's
house, leaving her belongings to be sent on after her.

She had not far to walk, and it so happened that her way led through the
identical lane in which she had met the fairy. Wonderful to relate,
there, on the very same stone and in precisely the same attitude, sat
the old lady, peering out from under her poke-bonnet, and resting her
knotty old hands on her crutch-handled stick!

Priscilla walked past with her head in the air, pretending not to
notice her, for she considered that the fairy had played her a most
malicious and ill-natured trick.

'Heyday!' said the old lady (it is only fairies who can permit
themselves such old-fashioned expressions nowadays). 'Heyday, why,
here's my good little girl again! Isn't she going to speak to me?'

'No, she's not,' said Priscilla--but she found herself compelled to
stop, notwithstandin