now it is one
of our customs to share all our pleasures. Poor little Maggie! The
thing was most unlucky."

Up in her room, Maggie had locked her door. She would unlock it again,
but she must read that frightful letter without any chance of being
disturbed. She opened it, tore it from its envelope, and read the
contents:

"DEAR POPSY,--I came across a cheap lot of frocks the other day
at a bankrupt's sale, and thought at once of Little-sing and her
daughter Popsy-wopsy. I am sending the dresses off to you
without saying a word to Little-sing. You will be well off now
for some time, and won't require the five pounds from me for
dress at Christmas. Hope you're enjoying your fine young ladies
and fine life. Neither Little-sing nor me miss you a bit; but,
all the same, your room will be ready for you at Christmas. Take
care of those good clothes, for I can't often spend as much on
you.

"Good-bye for the present.--Your affectionate father,

"BO-PEEP.

"_P.S._--I have a good mind to call on that fine-lady
schoolmistress of yours, Mrs. Ward. There's no saying but that
Little-sing and me may come along some afternoon when you least
expect us."

Maggie crushed the letter in her hand. Fresh terrors seemed to
surround her. Dreadful as the impossible clothes were, they were
nothing to what the appearance on the scene would be of the impossible
stepfather and her poor mother. Oh, why had she concealed the position
of the man whom her mother had married? Already Aneta had detected her
little act of deception with regard to the Martyns of The Meadows. But
that, Maggie felt, could be got over. It was easy for a girl to make a
mistake in a matter of that kind, and surely there were other Martyns
in the country high-born and respectable and all that was desirable.
But James Martin who kept a grocer's shop at Shepherd's Bush--James
Martin, with "grocer" written all over him!--rich, it is true; but,
oh, so vulgarly rich! Were he to appear and announce his relationship
to her at the school, she felt that, as far as she was concerned, the
end of the world would have arrived. What was she to do? There was not
a minute to be lost. In one way or another she had seen a good deal of
Bo-peep during the last half of those dreadful summer holidays, and
she knew that he was, as he expressed it, as good as his word.

Her only chance was in writing to her m