etry-book, if you like,' he said. 'It's a quite old
one. I think it belonged to grandmamma, and she's as old as--as old
as--' he seemed at a loss to find anything to compare poor grandmamma
to, till suddenly a bright idea struck him--'nearly as old as Mrs.
Wylie, I should think,' he finished up.

'Oh,' said Margaret, 'do you know Mrs. Wylie? I've never seen her, but I
think I've heard her talk. Her house is next door to the parrot's.'

'Yes,' said I, 'but I wonder you've never seen her. She often goes out.'

'But--' began the little girl again, 'I've been--oh, I do believe that's
my dinner clattering in the kitchen, and nurse will be coming in, and
I've never told you about the parrot. I've lots to tell you. Will you
come again? Not to-morrow, but on Wednesday nurse is going out to the
dressmaker's. I heard her settling it. Please come on Wednesday, just
like this.'

'We could come a little earlier, perhaps,' I said.

Margaret nodded.

'Yes, do,' she replied, 'and I'll be on the look-out for you. I shall
think of lots of things to say. I want to tell you about the parrot,
and--about lots of things,' she repeated. 'Good-bye.'

We tugged at our caps, echoing 'good-bye,' and then we walked on towards
the farther-off end of the terrace, and when we got there we turned and
walked back again. And then we saw that we had not left the front of
Margaret's house any too soon, for a short, rather stout little woman
was coming along, evidently in a hurry. She just glanced at us as she
passed us, but I don't think she noticed us particularly.

'That's her nurse, I'm sure,' said Peterkin, in a low voice. 'I don't
think she looks unkind.'

'No, only rather fussy, I should say,' I replied.

We had scarcely spoken to each other before, since bidding Margaret
good-bye. Pete had been thinking deeply, and I was waiting to hear what
he had to say.

'I wonder,' he went on, after a moment or two's silence,--'I wonder how
much she knows?'

'Why?' I exclaimed. 'What do you think there is to know?'

'It's all very misterous, still,' he answered solemnly. 'She--the little
girl--said she had lots to tell us about the parrot and other things.
And she didn't want her nurse to see us talking to her. And she said she
could come downstairs _now_, but, I'm sure, they don't let her go out.
She wouldn't be so dull if they did.'

'Who's "they"?' I asked.

'I don't quite know,' he replied, shaking his head. 'Some kind of
fairies. P'raps i