not; why, he's only poor Mr. Dove--a friend of mine."

When Daisy reached Miss Egerton's and found herself seated in that
lady's cosy little drawing-room, with sponge-cakes _ad libitum_ to
eat, and Noel sitting by and willing to give up all his time to her
benefit, she cheered up wonderfully; a faint color came to her white
little cheeks, and Miss Egerton, as she passed the open drawing-room
door, heard one or two silvery peals of laughter coming from her lips.

"Bless the child!" thought the kind woman; "how much better she is
when she is out of that house. What nice influence that good fellow,
Arthur, has over her. I do trust the silly little one will soon give
up her fancies--for they surely can be nothing but fancies--and come
to live with me."

But when the twilight fell Daisy ceased to laugh, the anxious and
troubled look returned to her face, and after a time she said to
Arthur, in her pretty coaxing way--

"Take me home now, please, Mr. Prince."

Two days afterwards Noel called at the girls' lodgings Daisy alone was
in, but to all his entreaties she now turned a deaf ear. No, she did
not want to go out; she would rather stay in her own dear, nice old
attics; she was never so happy anywhere as in her own attics. She was
very fond of Miss Egerton, but she did not think she would like to
live with her. Miss Egerton kept a bird, and Daisy had a great
dislike to birds.

"Please, Mr. Prince," she said, in conclusion, "stay with me here for
an hour or two, and tell me a beautiful story."

Noel was rather clever at making up impromptu stories, and he now
proceeded to relate a tale with a moral.

"There was a kind lady who had prepared lovely
guest-chambers--beautiful they were, and worthy of a palace."

Here Noel stopped, and looked hard at his little listener.

"Do you know why they were so lovely, little maid?"

"No; please tell me, Mr. Prince. Oh, I am sure this is going to be a
real true fairy tale--how delicious!" and Daisy leaned back on her
sofa with a sigh of content.

"The rooms were beautiful, Daisy," continued Arthur "because the walls
were papered with Goodness and the chairs, and the tables, and the
carpets, and the sofas, and the thousand-and-one little knick-knacks,
were placed in the rooms by Self-Denial, and the windows were polished
very brightly by Love herself, and she kept the key which opened the
chamber doors."

"How sweet!" said Daisy.

"Yes; there were two rooms, and they were