he
dining-room, carrying the parcel of books.

'Papa,' he said, 'these are the books you told Redding to order for
you--at least there are some of them, and if they are right, or if
you'll mark down which of them are not right, Fairchild the bookseller
will order what you want at once.'

'I'll look at them immediately after luncheon,' Mr. Vane replied. 'But
how did they come into your hands, my boy? Has Redding been here again?'

'No,' Rough explained, 'we met him,' and then he went on to tell the
history of the morning.

'And she 'avited us--the little-girl-in-the-bazaar's mother, I mean,'
Biddy hastened to add, 'to step into the parlour. I never saw a parlour
before; it's not as nice as a droind-room, except for the dear little
window up in the wall. Couldn't we have a little window like that in our
schoolroom, mamma? And I'm to go another day to see the room; it's not a
proper doll-house, she says; only a room, and I said I was sure I might
ask her to come here, but she said I must ask my mamma first. I thought
at first she was going to be rather a cross sort of a mamma, but I don't
think she is--do you, Alie?'

Biddy ran off this long story so fast that Mrs. Vane could only stare at
her in amazement.

'My dear Biddy!' she said at last. 'Alie, you were there? You don't mean
to say that you let Bride run into the toy-shop people's house and make
friends with their children, and--and----' Mrs. Vane stopped short, at a
loss for words.

Mr. Vane looked up.

'My dear child,' he said too, to Bridget, 'you must be careful. And
here--where everybody is sure to know who you are, and when you should
set a good example of nice manners--you must not behave in this wild
sort of way.'

'I didn't mean,' began Biddy plaintively.

But this time she was not chidden for her doleful tone--both Alie and
Rough came to the rescue.

'Please, mamma, oh please, papa, you don't understand,' began Rosalys.

'It wasn't the bazaar people at all,' said Rough, chiming in; 'it was
all right. Only, Biddy, you are really too stupid, the muddley way you
tell things----'

'Yes,' agreed Alie, with natural vexation, 'you needn't make it seem as
if we had all gone out of our minds, really.'

'I didn't mean,' started Biddy again, and still more lugubriously.

'Stop, Bride,' said Mr. Vane authoritatively, laying down his knife and
fork as he spoke. 'Now, Rosalys, tell the whole story properly.'

Alie did so, and as Randolph had already e