At last, as the bright
summer's morning broke, she turned to Primrose and said eagerly--

"Kneel down, Primrose, and ask God what a very ignorant, very unhappy
little girl ought to do. Oh, Primrose, it's all about a promise--a
promise that was most faithfully given. What shall I do about it?"

"Do you want to keep it, or to break it?" asked Primrose.

"It seems to me I ought to keep it, Primrose, because a promise,
faithfully given, ought always to be kept; but Mr. Noel says I ought
to break this promise; oh, I don't know what to do!"

"Your heart won't be at rest, Daisy, and you won't really get better,
until you do know what to do," answered Primrose. "Of course, I will
kneel down and ask God to tell you."

Then the elder sister prayed aloud a very few earnest words, and the
little one joined her in whispered sentences. The prayer was not long,
but in Daisy's case it was quickly answered. When the morning quite
broke, and the real working-day had begun, Primrose sent a message to
Noel to come at once to see the child. Daisy received him with a
touching little smile.

"Was the little girl me?" she asked. "And was the wicked, wicked ogre,
Mr. Dove?"

"It is clever of you to guess that much, Daisy," answered Noel.

"Am I the little girl?" continued Daisy, "who made a promise which she
ought now to break? Will God forgive me for breaking a promise which I
made so very, very faithfully? Mr. Noel, I will tell you something.
That promise has nearly killed me. The old Daisy went away when that
promise was made, and such a poor, cowardly, wretched Daisy came in
her place. She'd have been selfish, too, but for you; but you taught
her a little bit about the Palace Beautiful, and she was trying to be
good in spite of the dreadful promise. Then the ogre came again, and
the second time he was so dreadful that she even became very selfish
to get rid of him. Oh, Mr. Noel, is it right for me--will God think it
really right for me--to break that dreadful promise?"

"He will, Daisy. The promise ought never to have been made. Only an
innocent and ignorant little child would have made it; yes, Daisy,
dear, yours is one of the rare cases of a promise better broken than
kept. See, I am the Prince, and I'm going to take the spell of the
ogre from you. The wicked ogre is locked up in a dungeon instead of
you, and the Prince commands the poor little captive to tell him
everything."

Then Daisy, with some broken sobs, and with a pit