ed seat at Ingleside. And Lady Lucretia
Grandison and Lady Rosamond Earlscourt strolled often over to the arbor
and chatted gaily while their white fingers held the embroidery at which
they worked continually when not reading.

Many the scarf, cape, or flowing sleeve they worked themselves with
which to deck their fair necks, shoulders, and arms.

One evening, as Sally sat dreaming on the stones, she heard Rosamond
Earlscourt say:

"I must furbish up my riding-suit, for cousin Lionel will want to mount
Hotspur once he is home again, and I my Lady Grace."

And Lucretia answered, "Lionel liketh best to ride alone when on
Hotspur's back. Do not you remember he thought it made Hotspur impatient
to have another horse beside him, and raised his temper?"

"Then there are other horses he can ride," returned Rosamond. "My
beautiful Lady Grace is tired of standing in the stable, but I like not
to ride alone or only with a groom for company."

These words seemed to rouse something in Sally's soul, and she cried,
inwardly:

"Oh, why could not I have a 'Lady Grace,' a dear horse of my own on
which to fly across the country? I could ride, I know I could, and oh,
oh! I feel it within me that a fine horse, fine books, fine clothes, a
fine house, all, all that I see at Ingleside or Cloverlove, would fit
into my soul!"

"Dear child," said her Fairy, pityingly, "it is hard not to have what
the heart cries out for. Why not try to find out more about yourself?
Have you ever questioned Mistress Brace about your father, or it might
be about your mother, or what she may know of the home from whence they
came?"

Sally had never thought of this before. She was now twelve years old,
but the three years spent at the Flats, rather a miserable place, and
now nearly four at Slipside Row, were all that she plainly remembered.

Now, seeing and hearing these people who were so far above her, had
wakened that spirit or Fairy within her, which set her thinking of a
better kind of life.

"Perhaps Mistress Brace has things that belonged to my parents, and that
ought to be given me," murmured Sally.

"Why not ask her that, too?" said the Fairy.

"It would be no use," sighed the maiden.

CHAPTER XI.

FACE TO FACE

It was but a few days later that Goodman Kellar banged lustily on the
door, asking to see Mistress Brace. He had a fine setting of duck's eggs
to sell.

Sally was in the keeping-room mending, but she called Mistress Br