llie," explained her mother.

"Oh, I wish nobody knew, mamma. It was so nice. When shall I be grown up,
mamma?"

"Soon, my child--too soon," said Mrs. Goddard with a sigh. Nellie looked
at her mother and was silent for a minute.

"Mamma, do you like Mr. Juxon?" she asked presently.

"No, dear--how can one like anybody one has only seen once?"

"Oh--but I thought you might," said Nellie. "Don't you think you will,
mamma? Say you will--do!"

"Why?" asked her mother in some surprise. "I cannot say anything about
it. I daresay he is very nice."

"It will be so delightful to go to the Hall to dinner and be waited
on by big real servants--not like Susan at the vicarage, or Martha. Won't
you like it, mamma? Of course Mr. Juxon will have real servants, just
like--like poor papa." Nellie finished her speech rather doubtfully as
though not sure how her mother would take it. Mrs. Goddard sighed again,
but said nothing. She could not stop the child's talking--why should
Nellie not speak of her father? Nellie did not know.

"I think it will be perfectly delightful," said Nellie, seeing she got no
answer from her mother, and as though putting the final seal of
affirmation to her remarks about the Hall. But she appeared to be
satisfied at not having been contradicted and did not return to the
subject that evening.

Mr. Juxon lost no time in keeping his word and on the following morning
at about eleven o'clock, when Mrs. Goddard was just hearing the last of
Nellie's lesson in geography and little Nellie herself was beginning to
be terribly tired of acquiring knowledge in such very warm weather, the
squire's square figure was seen to emerge from the park gate opposite,
clad in grey knickerbockers and dark green stockings, a rose in his
buttonhole and a thick stick in his hand, presenting all the traditional
appearance of a thriving country gentleman of the period. He crossed the
road, stopped a moment and whistled his dog to heel and then opened the
wicket gate that led to the cottage. Nellie sprang to the window in wild
excitement.

"Oh what a dog!" she cried. "Mamma, _do_ come and see! And Mr. Juxon is
coming, too--he has green stockings!"

But Mrs. Goddard, who was not prepared for so early a visit, hastily put
away what might be described as the debris of Nellie's lessons, to wit, a
much thumbed book of geography, a well worn spelling book, a very
particularly inky piece of blotting paper, a pen of which most of the
st