was as far from the lake-which meant danger-as possible, and yet within sight of the carriage-drive, so that she might have the satisfaction and amusement of watching all who came and went, whether driving or on foot. Mabel had with her a new storybook, which Miss Poole had given to her, and becoming interested in it, she read on for some time without speaking or moving, whilst nurse, as she supposed, was engaged upon some piece of needlework.

Looking up at length-having passed the most interesting and exciting part of her story--she glanced across at her companion, when, to her great astonishment, she found the latter had dropped asleep, and was soundly nodding. With a mischievous twinkle in her brown eyes, the child advanced on tiptoe, and stood over her for a few seconds to make quite sure. Yes, there was no room for doubt: nurse was actually snoring.

"How I hope she'll sleep on for another hour or two," said Mabel to herself; and then she looked around to see how she could best employ the time, for she was tired of reading.

Glancing down the drive, her eye fell upon the lodge nestling among the trees. At the same moment she remembered nurse having said there was a little girl living there. That decided her; she immediately made up her mind to go and reconnoitre, in hopes of seeing something of this other little girl. It would be so nice to come upon somebody of her own age.

As the house stood on rising ground, it was all down-hill to the lodge, and Mabel, setting off at a run, soon found herself at the gate. Looking about, she perceived that the door stood open, whilst sitting just outside it was a comely middle-aged, or perhaps elderly, woman, with a calm, sweet face, snow-white cap and apron, and neat dark gown. She had some plain work in her hands, but every now and then she laid it down and turned round, as if to speak to some one within. Perhaps that might be the little girl, thought Mabel, as by degrees she drew nearer and nearer. She felt a little shy of accosting them, and yet she did not wish to lose time, lest nurse should wake up and miss her.

At length the woman, glancing up, perceived her, and after a moment's hesitation approached her.

"It's little Miss Wyndham, I think," she remarked.

"Yes, I'm Mabel Wyndham; but how did you know who I was?"

"I knew you were expected, and I opened the gate for you yesterday when you drove in. Besides, I heard about you afterwards: indeed, everybody about the place heard of your being lost. must have been a bad fall," remarked Mrs. Hope, glancing at the traces of the disaster still left

It

on the child's face. "I'm afraid you must have hurt yourself a good deal."

"Oh! nothing to speak of," said Mabel, who could bear hurts of that kind bravely enough. "But I was sent to bed after tea as a punishment. I minded that a great deal more."

"I dare say you did; it must have been a very dull way of spending your first evening," returned Mrs. Hope, feeling for the child.

The sympathy expressed by the tones of her voice did not escape Mabel. "I wish you were my nurse instead of Mrs. Cobbold," she exclaimed impulsively, as she looked up confidingly into the kind face of her new friend. "Are you examining my bruises?" she added.

"No, missie, dear. I was only thinking how like you are to your dear mamma."

"My mamma! Do you know her, then?" "Yes, indeed, for I nursed her from a baby." "Did you?" almost shrieked Mabel in her excitement; "did you really? Oh! what a nice nurse she must have had!" and she again mentally contrasted her with Mrs. Cobbold.

The other smiled, with an amused look in her eyes. But Mabel was not the only child who had fallen in love with Mrs. Hope at first sight. There was something so winning and so trustworthy in her kind, placid face, with its quietly-happy look and ever-ready smile, that most little people took to her at once, and, what was more, found she never disappointed them. Her heart seemed large enough to give them all a place in it.

"Oh, by the way," said Mabel, suddenly recollecting her errand, "haven't you a little girl, Mrs. Hope? Nurse said she had seen one at the lodge."

"I have a little grandchild. Would you like to come in and see her?"

"Yes, very much."

Mrs. Hope led the way indoors, where, lying on a sort of sofa, was a child of about Mabel's own age, delicate and fragile-looking, with small features, fair hair, pale complexion, and large blue eyes.

66

"Is she ill?" asked Mabel, as she glanced at the little white face.

"Not exactly that, though she is often ailing. But my poor little Janet can't run about like other children," said Mrs. Hope, stooping to give her grandchild a tender kiss, which called up a bright smile on the wan features in response. "She has to lie here day after day. But she is very good and patient."

The child looked up lovingly into the kind face bending over her. "You are so kind, granny, it would be naughty to be anything else."

Mabel contemplated her with compassionate looks.

"It must be hard to have to lie still all day," she remarked, feeling what a punishment it would be to her even for half a day.

"Oh, I'm accustomed to it," said Janet cheerily. "And there's plenty to look at as I lie here, for through the open door I can see the trees, and the birds hopping about, and the flowers."

"And it must be nice to have a grandmother," rejoined Mabel.

66 Much nicer than having an aunt, especially an aunt who is so frightened at everything. Still, it was fun too;" and with a look of very great amusement and enjoyment she

at once related her morning's adventure.

Before very long, however, a sudden interruption came. "Mrs. Hope, have you seen anything at all of Miss Mabel? She has run off from me," said a shrill voice at the door, making the little girl start. Turning, she found herself face to face with Mrs. Cobbold.

"So here you are! A nice young lady you

"I wasn't meaning to run away," explained Mabel. "I was coming back to you in a few minutes."

"Ah, I dare say !" ejaculated Mrs. Cobbold unbelievingly. "At all events, we'll go back together now, for it's getting near tea-time; so come along."

Mabel lingered a minute to say good-bye to Janet and Mrs. Hope. "I may come and see you

are, I must say !" she exclaimed in indignant tones. "One can't take eyes off you for two minutes but away you go off nobody knows where. I began to think we should have to hunt for you again as we did yesterday; and a pretty thing that would have been!" "Well, she didn't go far this time," interposed Mrs. Hope. "I hope you have not been looking for her long."

"No; as it happened, I thought she might have strayed down the drive, and I knew you must have seen her if she had gone through the gates, so I came straight down here first," replied Mrs. Cobbold.

again, mayn't I?" she said to the latter as she

put up her face for a kiss.

"Yes, missie dear, as often as ever you can. We shall always be glad to see you."

The child was obliged to turn and follow nurse, but she looked back as she went

to call out, "I shall bring Janet some of my very nicest storybooks to read the next time I come."

CHAPTER IV.

DISASTERS.

"ON Monday you will begin your lessons," remarked Miss Howard on that evening,address

ing her little niece; for Mabel had been dressed

and sent to the drawing-room after the late dinner, according to Miss Alicia's desire, and it was to be the regular rule that she should spend the last hour before bed-time with her uncle and aunt. The child disliked, even almost dreaded, the thoughts of it, and as she walked slowly along the corridor, after nurse had told her, with many injunctions, to behave properly, she found herself wishing that she could run off somewhere, and thus escape the infliction.

"Who am I to do lessons with?" she ventured to ask, devoutly hoping it was not to be with her aunt.

Mademoiselle Chassereau would be like. It all sounded very formidable, she thought; for she was by no means fond of French, and, moreover, was very backward in it.

"I know she will think me a dreadful dunce," she was saying to herself; "but I hope she won't be very strict. Anyhow, I expect I shall be very much afraid of her. And I suppose she will be always talking her own French. Well, if she does, I shan't understand a word she says; so if she scolds me for an hour I shan't be any the wiser; that will be one comfort."

Her meditations were interrupted at this point by her aunt's voice, bidding her sit uprightly and

tunity, her quick eye noticing that her uncle, who was sitting at the other end of the large room, appeared to be hunting for something that he could not find. Starting up so suddenly that her work fell to the ground, whilst her thimble rolled in one direction and the reel of cotton in another, she sprang across the room, and asked if she could help him in his search. He looked at her absently for a few moments, as if it took him a little time to realise who she was and how she came there, and at length, having arrived at an understanding of the matter, he answered slowly

"Ah, yes, I remember! It's little Mabel. Yes, my dear, you might help me look for them."

"Look for what? You haven't told me yet what it is you have lost, Uncle Gwynne."

"My spectacles, child. I can't tell where I have put them."

"Why, Uncle Gwynne, you've got them on!" cried Mabel, with a hearty burst of laughter. "They are pushed right up on the top of your forehead, and make you look so funny."

Mr. Howard's hands were put up to investigate and prove the truth of her assertion.

"Why, so they are!" he ejaculated. "Ah! I see you are laughing at your old uncle," he went on, as he perceived Mabel's eyes were dancing with "Nay, you needn't try to look grave;

amusement.

I don't mind being laughed at, and I like to see little Queen Mab wearing that roguish look on her face," he said kindly, as he drew her towards him. "Just now she appeared as if she could never smile again."

"Ah! that was because I was set to that needlework. I do so dislike hemming," whispered the child confidentially, hoping her aunt could not hear at that distance.

"Then I'm afraid you are not so industrious as some of my little friends. They work very neatly -beautifully, in fact—and I expect would beat you any day."

you must learn to be quiet. And why are you idling your time away over there, disturbing your uncle? Come back to your seat and go on with your work."

With rather a pouting face Mabel unwillingly obeyed. She wanted to continue the conversation until she arrived at some understanding of her uncle's meaning, so it was provoking to be interrupted. But he by this time had returned to his books, and was already so absorbed in them as to be oblivious of everything else.

It would be difficult to say whether the striking of Mabel's hour for going to bed brought more relief to aunt or niece. Both were glad to hear the sound, Miss Alicia feeling that her nerves had been kept on the strain as long as she could bear, and that another half-hour of the child's perpetual fidgeting would have driven her distracted; whilst Mabel felt like a bird released from its cage as she closed the drawing-room door behind her, and indulged in various antics and capers all the way along the corridor, as a vent to her spirits, and as compensation for having sat still so long. She little thought what an infliction her restlessness had been to her aunt.

The next afternoon Mrs. Cobbold again prepared to take her work out under the trees. She found Mabel had gathered together an armful of books, which she seemed intending to take with her.

"You can't want all those books at once, Miss Mabel. Besides, you can't carry such a lot."

"Oh, yes, indeed I can. I want to take them to Janet Hope, for I promised I would bring her some. If you will let me run down there, nurse, whilst you are sitting at your work, I'll promise to go nowhere else, and I'll come back to you, or stay there till you fetch me. Do say 'Yes,' please do," added Mabel, in her most coaxing way, as she fancied she saw refusal written on the other's face.

"I don't know that I can trust you," returned Mrs. Cobbold.

"If I promise, of course I shall keep my word,” said Mabel, a little indignant at nurse's doubt of her.

"Well, I will try you this once; and remember, if you break your promise it will be the last time I let you out of my sight."

Delighted at the prospect of getting an hour with Mrs. Hope and Janet, Mabel flew off down the drive. After she had gone some distance, and was already out of sight of the house and Mrs. Cobbold, a sudden gust of wind lifted her hat, and before she could secure it, both arms being full of books, off it blew, and sped before the wind down the road. Mabel ran after it as fast as she could, but unfor