And wrote Greek!
Impossible!"

"I have heard her talking for half an hour at a time. I have known the
girls in the first form ask her to help them with their exercises. She
knew more than anyone in the school."

"Then she is a human prodigy. She ought to be exhibited. Six years
old! Oh, I say--that child ought to turn out something great when she
grows up. What did you say her name was, by the bye?"

Peggy lowered her eyelids, and pursed up her lips. "Andromeda
Michaelides," she said slowly. "She was six last Christmas. Her father
is Greek Consul in Manchester."

There was a pause of stunned surprise; and then, suddenly, an
extraordinary thing happened. Mariquita bounded from her seat, and
began flying wildly round and round the table. Her pigtail flew out
behind her; her arms waved like the sails of a windmill, and as she
raced along she seized upon every loose article which she could reach,
and tossed it upon the floor. Cushions from chairs and sofa went flying
into the window; books were knocked off the table with one rapid sweep
of the hand; magazines went tossing up in the air, and were kicked about
like so many footballs. Round and round she went, faster and faster,
while the five beholders gasped and stared, with visions of madhouses,
strait-jackets, and padded rooms, rushing through their bewildered
brains. Her pale cheeks glowed with colour; her eyes shone; she gave a
wild shriek of laughter, and threw herself, panting, into a chair by the
fireside.

"Three cheers for Mariquita! Ho! ho! he! Didn't I do it well? If you
could have _seen_ your faces!"

"P-P-P-eggy! Do you mean to say you have been pretending all this time?
What do you mean? Have you been putting on all those airs and graces
for a joke?" asked Esther severely; and Peggy gave a feeble splutter of
laughter.

"W-wanted to see what you were like! Oh, my heart! Ho! ho! ho! wasn't
it lovely? Can't keep it up any longer! Good-bye, Mariquita! I'm
Peggy now, my dears.--Give me some more tea!"

CHAPTER FIVE.

EXPLANATIONS.

In the explanations that followed, no one showed a livelier interest
than Peggy herself. She was in her element answering the questions
which were showered upon her, and took an artistic pleasure in the
success of her plot.

"You see," she explained, "I knew you would all be talking about me, and
wondering what I was like, just as I was thinking about you. As I was
Arthur's sister, I knew you