ite, quite happy," she added wistfully.

The man said: "Then it's _you_ who are to be envied, not me!"

She coloured a little. "I don't understand," she said in a whisper.

He laughed. "Do you know the story of King Cophetua and the Beggar
Maid?" he asked.

She shook her head. "No, I don't think so."

"Well, anybody will tell you--I'm no good at explaining things. Ask your
mother when you get home, and then remember that I said that you were
Queen Cophetua, and I the Beggar Man."

She echoed his last word incredulously. "Beggar Man! How can you be,
with all--this?"

"All this--" he answered dryly--"is all I have, and there is no man so
poor as he who has only money. Now do you understand?"

The car had turned a corner and was slowing down. "I think this must be
your home," he said, and Faith gave a sigh. It had been such a heavenly
drive; why did all beautiful things end so soon?

He opened the door of the car and gave her his hand. "Good-bye, Queen
Cophetua," he said. His grey eyes rested on her serious little face. "Or
perhaps we won't say good-bye, as I hope we shall meet again."

The colour surged to her cheeks; a little ripple of laughter flickered
into her brown eyes.

"Oh, good-bye, Beggar Man," she answered, and then caught her breath at
her own daring. But the man only laughed, and presently the big car was
gliding slowly away down the road.

Faith watched it go before she turned indoors. She felt very much as
Cinderella must have done when she got back to the kitchen from the
Prince's ball.

Her mother, who had seen the car drive away, met her in the narrow hall;
she was a sweet-looking woman with tired eyes and a perpetual cough.

"Well, little girl?" she said, and there was a world of anxiety in her
voice.

Faith kissed her, and explained: "I fainted--it was so hot--and he
brought me home in his car." Her eyes fell for some reason which she
could not understand. "He was very kind," she added.

"And you don't know who he is?" her mother asked anxiously.

Faith shook her head. "He didn't tell me, but ... mother--who was King
Cophetua?"

They were in the little sitting-room now, where tea was laid ready, and
the twins sitting up to table.

Mrs. Ledley was busying herself with the teapot. She answered absently
that King Cophetua was only a man in a story, a king who married a
beggar maid.

"But it was only a story, Faith," she added earnestly. "One of those
stories which couldn't end ha