l really
let us pay for her lessons and make her as useful as if she were your
own little sister, why, then, thank you a thousand times, and a thousand
times more for lifting a weight off my mind. I was worrying myself
about her future, and now I shall worry no more, and father will be so
relieved, so happy! Are you sufficiently appeased to let me kiss you,
you haughty Mademoiselle?"

"With pleasure; yes! but my feelings are still sensitive. With the
slightest irritation I should have a relapse!" said Mademoiselle
stiffly; for it would not do to indulge in sentiment to-day, and
Bridgie's tears were dangerously near the surface.

The time for parting came at last, and the Major nerved himself to bid
adieu to his piccaninny with a composure which should leave her
unsuspicious of its final nature. He was very white, but Pixie had
grown accustomed to his pallor, and mingling with her grief at leaving
home was a keen pleasure at the thought of returning to her school
companions, of seeing Margaret and Ethel, of hearing Flora's fat,
contented chuckle, and seeing poor Lottie, and hearing how she had fared
at home. It was all very interesting and exciting, and somehow or other
home had been unusually dull during the last fortnight. Even Esmeralda
had turned quiet and mild, and Pat abandoned practical joking, and for
once been as good as he looked. The longing for some of the old
mischievous days made Pixie listen to her father's precepts with a
decided lack of enthusiasm.

"You will be a good child now, piccaninny, and work hard at your tasks.
Remember what I say to you, that you couldn't please me more than by
being good and industrious, and obedient to your teachers. I let you
run wild too long, and that's made you behind other girls of your age,
but you'll promise me that you will settle down, and make the most of
your opportunities?"

"I don't feel as if I wanted to `settle down.' It sounds so dull! Ye
can work without being so awfully proper, can't you, father? I can be a
little mischievous sometimes, can't I--especially on half-holidays?
I'll work all the better for it afterwards. And the girls would be so
disappointed if I were proper. You wouldn't believe how I liven them
up. Ye wouldn't like it yourself, now, Major, if ye never saw any more
of my pranks!"

He winced at that, but smiled bravely, his eye resting longingly upon
the thin little figure wriggling to and fro in the earnestness of its
appe