etty frocks. Oh, smile, darling, smile,
and say you're glad!"

Mrs. Ledley looked up.

"I think you must be ill--or dreaming," she said with a sob. "What is
the good of talking such nonsense, Faith? How do you think such things
can ever come true?"

Faith held out her left hand with its new wedding ring.

"Because I've married a Fairy Prince," she said.

Mrs. Ledley stared at the little ring for a moment in absolute silence,
then she broke out tremblingly:

"Faith! It's not true! You're just teasing me! It's just a joke! You
couldn't have got married without telling me first! Why, there's nobody
who would ask you!" She caught the girl by both shoulders and peered
into her face.

"Faith!" she urged again passionately.

Faith laughed tremulously. Somehow she had not expected her news to be
received so tragically; her old fears came surging back. Peg's words
echoed once more in her ears.

"What do you think he wants with a wife like you? With all his money he
could have anybody he likes...."

To drown the insistence of that voice she broke out into hurried
explanations.

"It's the man who brought me home in his car that day I was ill. He's
ever so rich, and we were married this morning. Oh, mother, don't look
like that; it's all right--indeed, it is! You saw him. You saw him drive
me up to the gate.... He's so good--so kind; he's going to help us all.
He's going to buy you a house in the country and send the twins to
school. He's given me ever so much money already--look!"

With shaking hands she dragged the money from her frock and put it into
her mother's lap.

"You can have it all--all!" she went on eagerly. "It's for you that I
wanted it. Not for myself. Oh, mother, why don't you speak? Why don't
you say something?"

Mrs. Ledley moved suddenly. She pushed the girl almost roughly from her,
letting the notes fall unheeded to the ground. She rose to her feet and
walked away up the stairs, and Faith heard the key turn in her bedroom
door.

She stood there in the narrow hall, all her happiness fallen from her.

What was the reason that nobody was glad? She had hoped such great
things from her mother and Peg, and both of them had disappointed her.

The twins had dried their tears and were clamouring round her to know
how soon they could start for their promised drive. Faith hardly heard
them. She went down on her knees and gathered up the Beggar Man's
despised money. She took it into the sitting-room a