all of us
trying to peep too. It was the twisty-twirly diamond ornament. A sort of
knot--big diamonds in the middle and littler ones in and out. It is
awfully pretty. I never saw diamonds sparkle so--you can see every
colour in them when you look close, like thousands of prisms, you know.
It had a case on purpose for it, and there were pins of different shapes
and sizes, so that it could be a brooch, or a hair-pin, or a hanging
thing without a pin at all.

Mums _was_ pleased.

'Oh, thank you, dear gran,' she said. 'It _is_ good of you. Yes, indeed,
I shall be proud to have such a lovely, splendid ornament in my hair.'

Then grandfather took it out of the case, and showed her all the
different ways of fastening in the pins. They had little screws at their
ends, and they all fitted in so neatly, it was quite interesting to see.

'You will wear it in your hair on Wednesday, no doubt,' he said. 'So I
will fasten in the hair-pin--there, you see it screws quite firmly.'

And then he gave it to mother, and she took it upstairs and put it away.

The next night--grandfather had left that morning--father and mother
were going out to dinner. Mother dresses rather early generally, so that
she can be with us a little, but that night she had been busy, and she
was rather late. She called us into her room when she was nearly ready,
not to disappoint us, and because we always like to see her dressed. She
had on a red dress that night, I remember.

Her maid, Rowley, had put out all the things on the toilet-table. When
mums isn't in a hurry I often choose for her what she's going to
wear--we spread all the cases out and then we settle. But to-night
there wasn't time for that. Rowley had got out a lot of things, because
she didn't know which mother would choose, and among them the new,
grand, diamond thing of grandfather's.

'Oh,' said Anne--she and I were first at the toilet-table,--'are you
going to wear gran's ornament, mother?'

[Illustration: 'Jack, do help me to fasten this bracelet.'--c. ii. p.
24.]

'No, of course not,' said mums. 'It's only for very grand occasions, and
to-night is quite a small dinner. I've got on all the jewellery I need.
But, Jack, do help me to fasten this bracelet, there's a good boy.'
Rowley was fussing away at something that wasn't quite right in mother's
skirt. Mother was rather impatient, and the bracelet was fidgety.

But at last I got it done, and Rowley stood up with rather a red face
fro