said Molly.

Then Isabel said, "Even if you do, I don't think we ought, perhaps,
to--to take them, for it would seem as though they were a sort
of--sort of--bribe."

"Oh, you old goose!" said Maggie, kissing her. "How could they be a
bribe when I don't ask you to do anything at all? But now, listen. We
were tired when we got to the gallery; therefore that sweet little
Merry of yours ordered fruit and milk and cake, and we ate and
talked."

"What did you talk about?"

"School, dear."

"What was the good of your talking about school to Merry when she
can't go?"

"Can't go?" said Maggie. "Why, she is going; only, it was my bounden
duty to make her want to go. Well, I succeeded in doing that this
morning. There's the gong, and, notwithstanding my lunch, I am quite
hungry."

"Well, Andrew and Jack are perfectly mad to see you; you'll have to
devote a bit of your time to them. Dear me, Mags!" said Molly, "it
must be tiresome to be a sort of universal favorite, as you are."

"Tiresome!" said Maggie, glancing round with her queer, expressive
eyes, "when I love it like anything? Let's get up a sort of play
between ourselves this afternoon, and let the boys join in; and, oh!
couldn't we--don't you think we might--get your two friends Cicely and
Merry to join us, just for an impromptu thing that we could act
beautifully in the hay-field? Wouldn't their father consent?"

"Why, of course he would. I'll run round the minute lunch is over and
get them," said Isabel. "You are a girl for planning things, Mags!
It'll be quite glorious."

"We might have tea in the hay-field too," continued Maggie. "I am sure
Peterkins and Jackdaw will help us."

"Capital! capital! and we'll get David"--David was the gardener's
boy--"to pick lots of fruit for the occasion."

CHAPTER VI.

FORBIDDEN FRUIT.

Meanwhile a little girl stood all alone on one of the terrace walks at
Meredith Manor. Mrs. Cardew and Cicely would not arrive until rather
late for lunch, and Merry and her father were to partake of it alone.
Merry paced up and down very slowly. What a lovely day it was, and how
beautiful the place looked with its long lines of stately trees, and
its background of woods, and its terraces of bright flowers and green,
green grass!

As far as the eye could reach the land belonged to the Cardews, and
yet Merry Cardew, the joint-heiress with Cicely of all this wealth,
did not feel either happy or contented at that moment. A girl