the little voice sounded once
again. The look, too, that Diana had given her on this occasion she
could not quite efface from her recollection. On the whole, therefore,
she felt inclined to be gentle to the little girl, and when she
pleaded for a holiday Mrs. Dolman did not say a word to interfere.

"It is a very hot day, and Diana was not quite well this morning,"
said Mr. Dolman, glancing first at his wife and then at Miss Ramsay,
"so, all things considered, perhaps--"

"Thank you, uncle," interrupted Diana, "it's kite settled, and you
isn't half a bad sort of old man. And now, p'ease, I want Orion to
have a holiday too."

"Oh, that's another matter!" interrupted Miss Ramsay. "Orion is in
perfect health to-day, and as he is extremely backward for his age--"

"But the heat of the day, and the child being so young," put in Mr.
Dolman.

"I'd be much happier if I had Orion with me," continued Diana, "and
it's 'portant my being happy; isn't it, Uncle William? P'ease, Uncle
William, say that Orion may have a holiday."

"I will give leave if your aunt and Miss Ramsay will," he replied.

"Oh, don't ask me!" said Mrs. Dolman, rising hastily as she spoke. "I
wash my hands of the pair."

"She washes her hands of the pair, so she don't count," said Diana.
"Is we to have a holiday, Uncle William? I is, but is Orion, too?
That's the 'portant part," she added.

"I have no objection," said Miss Ramsay, who thought it best to close
this scene as quickly as possible.

Orion uttered a shout of rapture, Diana rushed up to him, clutched him
round the neck, and pulled him from the room.

Nearly wild with glee, they both ran helter-skelter out of the house,
into the cool shrubbery beyond.

"Now, Orion," said Diana, the moment they found themselves alone, "you
must cool down and not 'cite yourself too much. We has a ter'ble lot
of work to do. I has got my holiday through awfu' suff'in'. I was
beated and killed, and I has come fresh to life again. Course I's in a
wage, and I's got a holiday for you and for me 'cos we must do our
work. Wun upstairs, Orion, and bwing down your big straw hat and mine,
and we'll go and find _them_."

Orion knew perfectly well what "them" meant. He looked hard at Diana,
saw something in her eyes which she could not suppress, and, with a
sigh of mingled pleasure and alarm ran off to do her bidding. He
returned in less than a minute with his large sailor hat stuck on the
back of his head, and a whit