et
_mine_ straight! I've carried things in it till the wires bulge out
like hoops. An umbrella is made for use; it's bosh pretending it's an
ornament. ... They are going a toddle round the Square between the
showers for the benefit of the Pet's complexion. I'm glad I haven't got
one to bother about!"

"True for you!" agreed Miles, with brotherly candour. "You are as brown
as a nigger, and the Pet is like a big wax-doll--yellow hair, blue eyes,
pink cheeks, all complete. Not a bad-looking doll, either. I passed
quite close to her one day, and she looked rattling. She'll be a jolly
pretty girl one of these days."

"Oh, if you admire that type. Personally, I don't care for niminy-
piminies. You never see her speaking, but I daresay if you poked her in
the right places she would bleat out `Mam-ma! Pa-pa!' ... Now watch!"
cried Betty dramatically. "When she gets to the corner, she will peer
up at this window beneath her eyelashes, and mince worse than ever when
she sees us watching. Don't shove so, Pam! You can see quite well
where you are. Now _look_! She's going to raise her head."

The five heads pressed still more curiously against the pane, and five
pairs of eyes were fixed unblinkingly upon the young girl who was
daintily picking her way round the corner of the Square. The fur cap
left her face fully exposed to view, and, true to Betty's prophecy, as
she reached a certain point in the road she turned her head over her
shoulder and shot a quick glance at the window overhead. Quicker than
lightning the pretty head went round again, and the pink cheeks grew
crimson at the sight of those five eager faces watching her every
movement.

Jack and Jill burst into loud laughter, Betty's upper lip curled
derisively, but Miles' thin face showed an answering flush of colour,
and he backed into the room, exclaiming angrily--

"I say, this is too much of a good thing! I don't know what you all
mean by swarming round me wherever I go! Why can't you leave a fellow
alone? Can't I even look out of the window without having you all on my
back? A nice effect it must have to see the whole place blocked up, as
if we were staring at a Lord Mayor's show!"

Betty sat down by the table and took up the blouse on which she had been
working for the last three months. The sleeves had been taken out and
replaced twice over, and the collar-band obstinately refused to come
right. By the time it was finished it would be h