ke the right "turns." Thus
Teddy, when asked "What is starch?" could reply with prompt accuracy,
while remaining in dense ignorance of the date when printing was
introduced into England, concerning which his small sister was so well
informed.

Sylvia was told of the books which were read and re-read, until the
pages came loose from their bindings; of the thrilling adventures of one
Masterman Ready, whose stockade, being besieged by savages, it became an
immediate necessity to guard the gate at the head of the nursery stairs,
and to hurl a succession of broken toys at the innocent nurse, as she
forced an entry; of a misguided and stubborn "Rosamond" who expended her
savings on a large purple vase from a chemist's window, and found to her
chagrin that when the water was poured away, it was only a plain glass
bottle; and of a certain "Leila," who sojourned on a desert island in
the utmost comfort and luxury, being possessed of a clever father who
found all that he needed on the trees in the forest.

An hour later, when Sylvia went up to her room, it was impossible to
resist drawing aside the blind to look across the road, and in an
instant, another blind was pulled back, and a tall dark figure stood
clearly outlined against the lighted background.

Sylvia understood that Jack had been watching for her advent, and felt
comforted by his presence, and all that was meant by that waving hand.
She wondered whether she had better write to Esmeralda, or try to see
her in person, but the question was decided by Pixie, who came over
early the next morning to announce Mrs Hilliard's arrival in the
afternoon.

"She wants to see you, and say she's sorry," she explained, and when
Sylvia exhausted herself in expressions of gratitude and delight, "Oh,
Esmeralda would give you her skin if it would fit ye!" she said coolly.
"She's the kindest of us all when she isn't cross. Give her her way,
and you may have all the rest. I've known her raise the roof on us, and
appealing to every relation we owned, to get what she wanted, and then
wrap it up in brown paper that very day, and post it back where it came.
I'm glad ye like it so much. Now if I'd been clever, and bought some
more paints when those people wanted me, maybe I could have done it for
you meself." Her face grew suddenly grave and wistful.

"When I got my telegram at school, the girls all brought me home
presents from the walk--pencil-boxes, and jujubes, and a little toy
ra