s.

When the story was very interesting, Mrs. Caldwell read until she was
hoarse, and then went on to herself--"dipping," the children called
it. It was a point of honour with them not to dip, and they would
remonstrate with their mother loudly when they caught her at it. Their
feeling on the subject was so strong that she was ashamed to be seen
dipping at last. She used to put the book away until they were safe in
bed, and then gratify her curiosity; but they suspected her, because
once or twice they noticed that she was unaffected by an exciting
part; so one night they came down in their night-dresses and caught
her, and after that the poor lady had to be careful. She might thump
the children for coming downstairs, but she could not alter the low
opinion they had of a person who dipped.

CHAPTER XVI

Beth's brain began to be extraordinarily busy. She recorded nothing,
but her daily doings were so many works of her imagination. She was
generally somebody else in these days, seldom herself; and people who
did not understand this might have supposed that she was an
exceedingly mendacious little girl, when she was merely speaking
consistently in the character which she happened to be impersonating.
She would spend hours of the afternoon alone in the drawing-room,
standing in the window looking out while she wove her fancies; and she
soon began to go out also, by the back-door, when the mood was upon
her, without asking anybody's leave. She had wandered off in this way
on one occasion to the south side, whither her people rarely went. At
the top of the cliff, where the winding road began which led down to
the harbour, a paralysed sailor was sitting in a wickerwork wheeled
chair, looking over the sea. Beth knew the man by sight. He had been a
yachtsman in the service of one of her great-uncles, and she had heard
hints of extraordinary adventures they had had together. It filled her
with compassion to see him sitting there so lonely and helpless, and
as she approached she resolved herself into a beneficent being, able
and willing to help. She had a book under her arm, a costly volume
which Mrs. Caldwell had borrowed to read to the children. Beth had
been looking at the pictures when the desire to go out suddenly seized
upon her, and had carried the book off inadvertently.

"How are you to-day, Tom?" she said, going up to the invalid
confidently. "I'm glad to see you out. We shall soon have you about
again as wel