the Number Seven lady would go out for a walk, and let me see her
autumn clothes. She wears all the colours of the rainbow, and looks
like a walking kaleidoscope... Whitey! Oh, Whitey!"

The weak voice rose to a squeal of excitement, and the nurse bent
forward curiously to discover the reason of so much agitation. To the
ordinary eye, however, there was nothing to be seen, for Sylvia's
outstretched hand pointed to a semi-detached villa in no way
distinguished from the rest of the row.

"It's taken!" she cried--"Number Three is taken! It has been empty for
a year, and I have simply longed for someone to come, for it is the most
convenient house to watch, and I take such interest in the neighbours.
It's pretty lonely for me here, for I haven't a single girl-friend.
Father kept me at school in Brussels for the sake of learning the
language, but almost all the girls were French or American, and none of
them live in London. Aunt Margaret introduced me to some `young
friends' when I first arrived, but I thought they were horrid prigs, and
I suppose they thought I was mad, so the friendship didn't progress. I
amuse myself with my music and in dreaming of the time when father comes
home, but every time a house changes hands I have a wild hope that there
will be a girl in the family, who would be lively and jolly like myself.
I'm very nice when I'm well, Whitey--I am really! You needn't laugh
like that. I daresay you would be fractious yourself if you had to lie
in bed for months and months, and had an old griffin to mount guard over
you, who made you eat against your will, and bullied you from morning
till night... What was I talking about last? Oh yes, I wanted to ask
if you had seen anything of these new people, and what they were like."

"I haven't had much time for looking out of the window, but I have seen
a young lady and gentleman going out and in. I think they are a newly-
married couple, for they look very juvenile and affectionate. He is
dark and handsome, and she is fair, and I should say very pretty."

Sylvia's face clouded with disappointment.

"Bother the husband! She won't want me or anyone else to interrupt the
duet. I do wish it could have been a family with a daughter. The
curtains don't look newly-married, Whitey!"

"No, they don't. I thought that myself. The house doesn't look as
smart and fresh as one expects under the circumstances, but perhaps they
are not well off, and had to be co