moment, Marie
darted away to see the dog, and just for a little while the nurse didn't
miss her, thinking she was with her grandmother, for she had said when
she pulled away her hand, 'I want to go to grandmother,' and of course
her grandmother didn't miss her, thinking she was behind with the nurse.
Marie was so pleased with the dog that she stood for a minute or two
looking at it, and laughing to herself at its tricks. And then she heard
some one saying to her, in French of course--she could speak both French
and English--'Oh, what pretty hair the young lady has! Oh, what a
charming young lady!' And when she turned round she saw the person that
was speaking to her was a gipsy-looking girl--of course Marie was too
little to know that she was gipsy-looking--but she remembered that she
had very dark hair and eyes, and a bright scarlet dress, and shiny gold
things about her head. She must have been one of the rope-dancing
players, mother told me, for afterwards her grandmother noticed that
their tent was close by the dancing dog place. Little Marie looked up at
the girl without speaking. Then the girl said to her, 'I have two little
dogs that dance much better than that. Will the young lady come with me
to see them?'

"She held out her hand, but Marie would not take her hand, because she
thought it was dirty. She wanted dreadfully to see the two dogs though,
so she said to the girl, 'You show me where, and I'll come, and then you
must take me back to my grandmother.'

"'Oh yes,' said the girl, 'you come after me, and then, when you've seen
the dogs, I'll take you back to your grandmother.'

"So the girl turned another way and went in among the tents, like at the
back of them, and Marie went after her. The girl walked quick, but she
kept looking back to see if Marie was coming. Marie was coming as fast
as she could, when all of a sudden, close to her it seemed, she heard
the most awful big noise she had ever heard in her life; a roar, so
dreadfully loud, that it seemed to shake the ground like thunder. Marie
knew what it was, for when she had been at the fair before, alone with
her nurse, she had heard it, though never so near, and her nurse had
told her it was the lion, the great big lion they had in the animal show
place."

"Oh Audrey," Racey interrupted, coming close up to me and cuddling his
face into my shoulder, "don't tell stories about lions. It does so
f'ighten me."

"Lubbish," said Tom, "do go on, Audrey. I