e made up her mind that "the English
lady," and no other, would be her next messenger to Alphen. She
dismissed the morocco case from her mind as unsuitable for the
occasion, and deliberated long with her mother. At last she was sent
to town to buy three medium-sized dolls.

It did not matter much what kind of dolls they were, but they had to
have hollow porcelain heads, and they were to be bought from one man
only, an indispensable fellow-conspirator in one of the principal
stores in Church Street.

When she came home with the dolls her mother seemed pretty well
satisfied with the heads; they looked fairly roomy from the outside,
and so they were found to be when one of them had been carefully
steamed until the glue melted and the head dropped off.

Hansie had been writing, without lifting her head, while her mother
prepared the doll. The sheets of paper, rolled up into pellets, were
then forced through the slender neck, and the dolls weighed to see if
the difference in weight were noticeable. It was not. The head was
glued on again, a blue cross was marked on the body, and the dolls
were neatly wrapped in a brown-paper parcel.

"The English lady" soon after came to pay her farewell call. After the
usual formalities had been exchanged she remarked that she hoped to
visit Alphen soon after her arrival in Cape Town.

Mrs. van Warmelo was charmed and delighted, and asked whether she
would be good enough to take a parcel of three dolls for Mrs. Cloete's
little daughters.

There was just one moment's hesitation, then "the English lady rapidly
made up her mind." "Yes, with pleasure, but I must have the parcel
to-morrow, because my trunks have to be closed and sent on ahead."

Mrs. van Warmelo turned to her daughter in grave consultation. "Let me
see, it is too late now, the shops will be closed, but you can perhaps
go to town on your bicycle early to-morrow morning to buy the dolls
and have them sent straight to Mrs. ----'s house."

"Yes, mother, I'll do that with pleasure, but I won't have them sent.
I'll take them to her myself to be quite sure that she will have them
before twelve o'clock."

The next morning Hansie took the dolls to her fellow-conspirator
behind the counter and had them made up into an unmistakably
_professional_-looking parcel, tied and sealed with the label of the
shop.

Thus were the suspicions of "the English lady" lulled to rest. For her
comfort, should this ever reach her eye, I may say