into the story. But you're
quite sure there was no fairy inside the figure _I_ ate, aren't you?'

'Oh yes,' said Mark, 'I--I happen to know that.'

'_That's_ all right, then,' said Dolly, with a little sigh of relief.
'Was that the only fairy story you know?'

'Yes,' Mark hastened to explain, in deadly fear lest he might be
called upon for another.

'Oh,' said Dolly, 'then we'd better have tea'--for the door had
opened.

'It's not Champion after all,' she cried; 'it's Mabel. I never heard
you come back, Mabel.'

And Mark turned to realise his dearest hopes and find himself face to
face once more with Mabel.

She came in, looking even lovelier, he thought, in her fresh spring
toilette than in the winter furs she had worn when he had seen her
last, bent down to kiss Dolly, and then glanced at him with the light
of recognition coming into her grey eyes.

'This is Mr. Ernstone, Mab,' said Dolly.

The pink in Mabel's cheeks deepened slightly; the author of the book
which had stirred her so unusually was the young man who had not
thought it worth his while to see any more of them. Probably had he
known who had written to him, he would not have been there now, and
this gave a certain distance to her manner as she spoke.

'We have met before, Mr. Ernstone,' she said, giving him her ungloved
hand. 'Very likely you have forgotten when and how, but I am sure
Dolly had not, had you, Dolly?'

But Dolly had, having been too much engrossed with her dog on the day
of the breakdown to notice appearances, even of his preserver, very
particularly. '_When_ did I see him before, Mabel?' she whispered.

'Oh, Dolly, ungrateful child! don't you remember who brought Frisk out
of the train for you that day in the fog?' But Dolly hung her head and
drooped her long lashes, twining her fingers with one of those sudden
attacks of awkwardness that sometimes seize the most self-possessed
children. 'You never thanked him then, you know,' continued Mabel;
'aren't you going to say a word to him now?'

'Thank you very much for saving my dog,' murmured Dolly, very quickly
and without looking at him; when Mabel, seeing that she was not at her
ease, suggested that she should run and fetch Frisk to return thanks
in person, which Dolly accepted gladly as permission to escape.

* * * * *

Mark had risen, of course, at Mabel's entrance, and was standing at
one corner of the curtained mantelpiece; Mabel was at th