ere I'd go if I told a lie, of course, Mr. Dove. Yes, yes, you are
my friend, and I'm your friend--yes, yes."

"Daisy, do wake up," said Jasmine; "you are talking such rubbish about
Mr. Dove, and about telling lies, and Mr. Dove being your friend--open
your eyes, Daisy, and let me give you such a nice little breakfast."

"Is that you, Jasmine?" said Daisy--"I thought you were Mr. Dove--I
was asleep, and I was dreaming."

"Yes, Eyebright, and talking in your dreams," said Jasmine, stooping
down and kissing her.

Daisy held one of Jasmine's hands very tightly.

"Did I say anything, Jasmine--anything that you shouldn't
hear--anything about--about sticky sweetmeats, Jasmine?"

"No, you silly pet, not a word. Now sit up in bed, and let me give you
your breakfast. Daisy, I really do think my novel is going to be a
great success. I am going to put Mr. Dove into it, and Mrs. Dove, and
Tommy Dove, and our dear old Poppy, and of course ourselves. One
reason why I feel so confident that the novel will be a success is
that _all_ the characters will be sketched from the life."

"But please don't put in about the Doves," said Daisy. "I think they
are such dread--I mean, of course, they are my friends, particularly
Mr. Dove, he's my real, real friend, but I mean that I don't think
they'd come well into a book, Jasmine--I don't think they're book
people a bit--book people should be princes and knights and lovely
ladies, and there should be no houses, and no attics, only there might
be fairy palaces, and all the little girls should be happy, and kept
safe from ogres--the little girls in the books shouldn't even have an
ogre for a friend. Oh, Jasmine, Jasmine! I'm so very miserable!"

Daisy again broke into weak sobs, and poor Jasmine could scarcely
soothe her.

A little before noon Primrose and Miss Egerton, and a tall, grave,
kind-looking man, who went by the name of Dr. Griffiths, and was a
great friend of Miss Egerton's, came up the stairs.

Both Dove and his wife saw them go, and Dove shook his hand at Dr.
Griffiths, as that gentleman walked up the stairs. They all three went
into the attics, and the doctor had a long talk with the little
patient--he felt her pulse and her head, and looked into her eyes, and
tried to induce her to laugh, and did succeed in getting one little
startled and half-frightened sound from the child; then he went back
into the sitting-room, and had a long talk with Primrose and Miss
Egerton. The