s-old Bridget!--for Rosalys was twenty-one to-day.
'There are some birthdays one should remember more than others. A
twenty-first birthday is a _very_ particular one, isn't it?'

'Yes indeed, Biddy, it is,' Alie replied. 'I can scarcely believe it.
And fancy, in five years more _you_ will be twenty-one!'

'I hope I shall go on growing till then,' said Biddy, whose great
ambition was to be as tall as her sister. 'Some girls do, don't they?
And I have grown a good deal this year. I don't look as stumpy as I did,
do I?' and Biddy looked up in her sister's face with a pleasant
smile--a smile that showed her pretty white teeth and shone out of her
nice brown eyes. She was not lovely like Alie, but she had a dear honest
face--though she was still rather freckled, and her dark wavy hair gave
her a somewhat gipsy look.

'You aren't a bit stumpy--you're just nice,' said Rosalys, 'though I
daresay you will grow some more. Just think what a little roundabout you
once were, and how you've grown since then.'

'Yes indeed,' laughed Biddy. 'Talking of birthdays, Alie, do you
remember my eighth birthday? The one at Seacove, when papa and mamma
were away after his being so ill, and when you all gave me the
doll-house--the dear old doll-house; do you know I really sometimes play
with it still? I often think of Seacove.'

'So do I,' said Alie. 'Of course I didn't like it _as much_ as this, for
this garden is so sweet and the country all about here is so beautiful,
and then it's so nice to be near grandmamma. But Seacove had a great
charm about it too.'

'The sea,' said Biddy--'the sea and the sunsets,' she went on half
dreamily; 'I always think when I see a red sunset----' but then she
stopped. There are some thoughts that one keeps _quite_ in one's own
mind!

'I always feel grateful to Seacove,' she said after a moment's pause.
'Mamma is quite sure that the three years we lived there did more than
anything to make papa strong again. What a blessing it is that he is so
well now!'

'And quite able for all his work here, though he could never stand
London again,' said Alie. 'I wish Rough had gone into the Church too,
Bride--that is to say, I wish _he_ had wished it. Then we should have
had him somewhere near us, instead of far away in India,' and she gave a
little sigh.

'But he's getting on so well--he was just _made_ to be a soldier,' said
Biddy. 'And papa says it is like that. Some people just _feel_ what
they're meant to be.