ttle open carriage in which their mistress sat, half-hidden among
a pile of baskets and parcels. She was always beautiful and radiant,
and as she passed she would turn her head over her shoulders and look at
the three mud-bespattered pedestrians with a smile of pitying
condescension, which made Peggy set her teeth and draw her eyebrows
together in an ominous frown.

One day she condescended to stop and speak a few words from her throne
among the cushions.

"How de do? So sowwy not to have been to see you! Fwightfully busy,
don't you know. We are decowating the wooms, and don't know how to
finish in time. It's going to be quite charming!"

"We know! We know! Rob told us. I'm dying to see it. You should ask
Peggy to help you, if you are in a hurry. She's s-imply splendid at
decorations! Mother says she never knew anyone so good at it as Peggy!"
cried Mellicent, with an outburst of gushing praise, in acknowledgment
of which she received a thunderous frown and such a sharp pinch on the
arm as penetrated through all her thick winter wrappings.

Rosalind, however, only ejaculated, "Oh, weally!" in an uninterested
manner, and whipped up her ponies without taking any further notice of
the suggestion; but it had taken root in her mind all the same, and she
did not forget to question her brother on the first opportunity.

Mellicent Asplin had said that Peggy Saville was clever at decoration.
Was it true, and would it be the least use asking her to come and help
in the decorations?

Robert laughed, and wagged his head with an air of proud assurance.

Clever! Peggy? She was a witch! She could work wonders! If you set
her down in an empty room, and gave her two-and-sixpence to transform it
into an Alhambra, he verily believed she could do it. The way in which
she had rigged up the various characters for the Shakespeare reading was
nothing short of miraculous. Yes, indeed, Peggy would be worth a dozen
ordinary helpers. The question was, Would she come?

"Certainly she will come. I'll send down for her at once," said
Rosalind promptly, and forthwith sat down and wrote a dainty little
note, not to Peggy herself, but to Mrs Asplin, stating that she had
heard great accounts of Peggy Saville's skill in the art of decoration,
and begging that she might be allowed to come up to the Larches to help
with the final arrangements, arriving as early as possible on the day of
the party, and bringing her box with her, so