full of flowers--amidst which
the piping bullfinch, Puffball, hopped about.

Miss Melford, with her satin-brown hair, and golden-brown silk dress,
was a pleasant figure to look upon as she put down her pen, and said
sweetly:

"Well, girls, what is it?"

Maura drew back and was silent, but I was spokeswoman for her; and when
I concluded my story there was silence for a few moments.

Then Miss Melford rose, and putting an arm round Maura's shoulders,
gravely, but at the same time tenderly, in her own sweet way, pointed
out the moral of the situation, and then added:

"You shall accompany me to see the people who have generously (if
unwisely) allowed you to have the goods, and I will explain matters, and
request them to wait."

Maura was a quiet, subdued girl for a time after this, but a few days
later she knocked timidly at Miss Melford's door. Miss Melford was
alone, and bade her enter. Once in the room Maura hesitated, and then
said:

"Please, Miss Melford, may I ask a favour?"

"Certainly, my dear! What is it?"

"If I can find any right and honourable way of earning the money to pay
the bills with, may I do so?"

"Assuredly," said Miss Melford, "if you will submit your plan to my
approval; but, Maura, I am afraid you will find it is harder to earn
money than you think."

"Oh yes, I know money is hard to get, and very, very easy to spend. What
a queer world it is!" was Maura's comment, as she left the room.

II.

THE BAL MASQUE.

There was to be a Children's Fancy Dress Ball--a Bal Masque, to which
all Miss Melford's senior pupils were going, and little else was talked
of weeks before the great event was due!

Margot was to go as Evangeline, and I was to be Priscilla the Puritan
Maiden, but none of us knew in what character Maura Merle was to appear.
It was kept secret.

Knowing the state of her finances, both Miss Melford and the girls
offered to provide her costume, but she gratefully and firmly rejected
both proposals, saying that she had made arrangements for a dress, and
that it would be a surprise.

And indeed it was, for when we all assembled in the white drawing-room,
in readiness for our escort to the Town Hall, Maura was what newspapers
style "the cynosure of all eyes."

She wore a frock of pale blue silk! and all over it in golden letters
were the words: "Sweets from Fairyland."

Her waving golden hair was adorned by a small, white satin, Trigon hat,
ornamented with a blue band,