not
refuse what was good for them, but I'll keep my own house, or give it up
altogether!" said Jack proudly, and Sylvia nodded her head in emphatic
approval from her place of vantage on the sofa.

Pat and Miles also applauded the declaration of independence, and
accepted their own share in the contemplated economies with unperturbed
serenity, while Pixie sat solemnly in a corner, turning her eyes on the
face of each speaker in turns, her shoulders heaving with suppressed
emotion. Of all the members of the family it was evident that she took
the present difficulty most seriously, and Sylvia was strengthened in
the conviction that she had heard and taken to heart the reference to
herself which had been made in the afternoon.

She made no reference to the subject, but three times over the next day
Sylvia entered a room in time to hear a hurried rustle and scramble, and
behold Pixie gazing into the fire with an air of elaborate
unconsciousness--the newspaper rolled into a ball beneath her chair. It
was always open at the advertisement sheet, moreover, so that the
onlooker had not much difficulty in guessing the character of the
letters which were inscribed with such deep-breathed earnestness in the
afternoon.

They were posted in the pillar-box at the corner of the road, and Pixie
marched back to the house and sat herself down with an air of mysterious
importance. Her head was held proudly erect, her lips pressed tightly
together as if nothing, no nothing, would induce her to put her secret
into words, and Sylvia smiled to herself, and from the experiences of a
week's acquaintance, gave her exactly five minutes in which to divulge
the whole story.

"If you were threatened with a danger--a hidjus danger--what should you
think would be the best way to avoid it?" asked Pixie earnestly, at the
expiration of two minutes and a half.

Sarah had that moment brought in the lamp and brushed up the fire, and
the little room looked wonderfully cheerful and cosy. It was just the
time and opportunity for a confidential chat, and Sylvia sat herself
down in the arm-chair with a pleasant sense of expectancy. She was
allowed to sit up for an hour or two in the day, and that in itself was
a cheering circumstance.

"If I were threatened with a danger, how should I try to avoid it? I
really don't know, Pixie. What do you advise yourself?" she asked
smilingly, and Pixie smote her fists together, and stamped on the floor
with dram