other's
protecting shoulder. 'It's true!' she sobbed, 'I don't deserve that you
should be glad to see me--I've been hateful and horrid, I know--but, oh,
if you'll only forgive me and love me and put up with me a little, I'll
try not to preach and be a prig any more--I will truly!'

And at this her father called her to his side and embraced her with a
fervour he had not shown for a very long time.

* * * * *

I should not like to go so far as to assert that no imitation diamond,
ruby, pearl, or emerald ever proceeded from Priscilla's lips again.
Habits are not cured in a day, and fairies--however old they may be--are
still fairies; so it _did_ occasionally happen that a mock jewel made an
unwelcome appearance after one of Priscilla's more unguarded utterances.
But she was always frightfully ashamed and abashed by such an accident,
and buried the imitation stones immediately in a corner of the garden.
And as time went on the jewels grew smaller and smaller, and frequently
dissolved upon her tongue, leaving a faintly bitter taste, until at last
they ceased altogether and Priscilla became as pleasant and unaffected a
girl as she who may now be finishing this history.

Aunt Margarine never sent back the contents of that bandbox; she kept
the biggest stones and had a brooch made of them, while, as she never
mentioned that they were false, no one out of the family ever so much
as suspected it.

But, for all that, she always declared that her niece Priscilla had
bitterly disappointed her expectations--which was perhaps the truest
thing that Aunt Margarine ever said.

_A MATTER OF TASTE_

PART I

It is a little singular that, upon an engagement becoming known and
being discussed by the friends and acquaintances of the persons
principally concerned, by far the most usual tone of comment should be a
sorrowing wonder. That particular alliance is generally the very last
that anybody ever expected. 'What made him choose _her_, of all people,'
and 'What on earth she could see in _him_,' are declared insoluble
problems. It is confidently predicted that the engagement will never
come to anything, or that, if such a marriage ever does take place, it
is most unlikely to prove a success.

Sometimes, in the case of female friends, this tone is even perceptible
under their warmest felicitations, and through the smiling mask of
compliment shine eyes moist with the most irritating quality of
c