he washing-glove was very large on Tony's little hand, and he used a
tremendous lot of soap--but Fay became all smiles and amiability during
the process. Meg and Jan had tears in their eyes as they watched the
quaint spectacle. There was something poignantly pathetic in the
clinging together of these two small wayfarers in a strange country, so
far from all they had known and shared in their short experience.

Meg's "nasty hat" was rakishly askew upon her red curls, for Fay had
frequently grabbed at it in her rage, and the beautiful green linen gown
was sopping wet.

"Engliss Ayah clying!" Fay remarked surprisedly. "What for?"

"Because you wouldn't let me bathe you," said Meg dismally. Her voice
broke. She really was most upset. As it happened, she did the only thing
that would have appealed to little Fay.

"Don't cly, deah Med," she said sweetly. "You sall dly me."

And Meg, student of so many manuals, humbly and gratefully accepted the
task.

It had taken exactly an hour and a quarter to get Fay ready for bed.
Indian Ayah used to do it in fifteen minutes.

Consistently and cheerfully gracious, Fay permitted Meg to carry her to
her cot and tuck her in.

Meg lit the night-light and switched off the light, when a melancholy
voice began to chant:

"_My_ Ayah always dave me a choccly."

Now there was no infant in London less deserving of a choccly at that
moment than troublesome little Fay. "Nursery Hygiene" proclaimed the
undeniable fact that sweetmeats last thing at night are most injurious.
Duty and Discipline and Self-Control should all have pointed out the
evil of any indulgence of the sort. Yet Meg, with all her theories quite
fresh and new, and with this excellent opportunity of putting them into
practice, extracted a choccly from a box on the chest of drawers; and
when the voice, "like broken music," announced for the third time, "_My_
Ayah always dave me a choccly," "So will this Ayah," said Meg, and
popped it into the mouth whence the voice issued.

There was a satisfied smacking and munching for a space, when the voice
took up the tale:

"Once Tony had thlee----"

But what it was Tony once had "thlee" of Meg was not to know that night,
for naughty little Fay fell fast asleep.

* * * * *

For a week Tony bathed his sister every night. Neither Jan nor Meg felt
equal to facing and going through again the terrors of that first night
without Ayah. Little Fay was quit