cious, and sucked a chocolate all the time, to make my voice
thick. I'll swallow it now." Nan gulped, and rolled her eyes in
expressive enjoyment. "When I was dressed, I stole downstairs, let
myself out of the side gate, and rang at the bell as bold as brass.
Mary did not recognise me, so I felt I was safe; but my one terror was
lest you should go upstairs to call me down."

"And you found all the clothes in the dressing-up box! It is so long
since we used it that I had almost forgotten the dear old things. The
shawl and skirt I recognise, of course, but you have trimmed the bonnet
yourself. I will say for you, my dear, that you made the most appalling
old woman I have ever encountered."

"But I don't quite approve of making fun of anything so very, very sad
as those dear incurables!" said Lilias solemnly. "Well, perhaps you
didn't make fun of them exactly, but it was not quite a nice subject to
choose for a practical joke. We ought to think of them tenderly.--By
the by, I want that half-crown, Nan. Give it back to me!"

"N-ay!" drawled Nan, shaking her head, and speaking in broad, North-
country dialect, "N-ay, lass! I'll none give it oop. It mun bide with
me till I dee! I'll give you back good coin of the realm instead, but
this precious piece is mine, and shall be pierced with a hole, and
chained to my side, to commemorate the occasion. It will be good for
you as well as for me. You can look at it, and remember how generous
you were!"

"Humph!" said Lilias, and turned to the tea-table to pour out the long-
delayed tea. It was too strong to drink; and when Mary appeared in
response to the bell, it was a treat to see her stagger back at the
sight of the dishevelled figure in the arm-chair, and to watch the smile
of benign condescension with which Nan wrinkled up her face and inclined
her red-brown head.

Mary was an old friend of the family, and on sufficiently intimate terms
to express her opinion in terms unchequered by forms of politeness. She
wished to be informed what Miss Nan would be up to next, and repeated
with unction her own description of the "Hugliest old woman you ever set
eyes on," as given to cook in the kitchen, ten minutes earlier. "We've
been talking about you ever since, and wondering what you were after."

This was fame indeed! The girls shared in the reflected glory of Nan's
performance, and only regretted that it had not been witnessed by a
larger audience, while Chrissie,