e left the hotel."

Lloyd was scandalised. They were quarrelling like two little dogs,
seemingly unconscious of the fact that a hundred people were within
hearing. As Fidelia seemed to be getting the upper hand, the little
brother joined in, calling in a high piping voice, "And if you squeal on
Howell, Fidelia Sattawhite, I'll tell mamma how you went out walking by
yourself in New York when she told you not to, and took her new purse and
lost it! So there, Miss Smarty!"

"Oh, those dreadful American children!" said an English woman near Lloyd.
"They're all alike. At least the ones who travel. I have never seen any
yet that had any manners. They are all pert and spoiled. Fancy an English
child, now, making such a scene in public!"

The Little Colonel could feel her face growing painfully red. She was
indignant at being classed with such rude children, and walked quickly
away. At the cabin door she met a maid, who, coming out on deck with
something wrapped carefully in an embroidered shawl, sat down on one of
the empty benches.

Scarcely was she seated when the two boys pounced down upon her and began
pulling at the blanket. "Oh, let me see Beauty, Fanchette," begged Howell.
"Make him sit up and do some tricks."

The maid pushed them away with a strong hand, and then carefully drew
aside a corner of the covering. Lloyd gave an exclamation of pleasure, for
the head that popped out was that of a bright little French poodle. She
had thought many times that morning of the two Bobs, and good old Fritz,
dead and gone, of Boots, the hunting-dog, and the goat and the gobbler
and the parrot,--all the animals she had loved and played with at Locust,
wishing she had them with her. Now as she saw the bright eyes of the
poodle peeping over the blanket, she forgot that she was a stranger, and
running across the deck, she stooped down beside it.

"Oh, the darling little dog!" she exclaimed, touching the silky hair
softly. "May I hold him for a minute?"

The maid smiled, but shook her head. "Ah, that the madame will not allow,"
she said.

"It cost a thousand dollars," explained Howell, eagerly, "and mamma thinks
more of it than she does of us. Doesn't she, Henny?"

The small boy nodded with a finger in his mouth.

"Show her Beauty's bracelet, Fanchette," said Howell. Turning back another
fold of the blanket, the maid lifted a little white paw, on which sparkled
a tiny diamond bracelet. Lloyd drew a long breath of astonishment.