name _is_ funny; mother called it me 'cos--, but p'raps we'd
better go on. I've been out a good while and mother might be wondering
what I was doing, and then if the letter for father matters much----'

'Yes,' said Alie; 'you're quite right; we'd better be quick.'

So the little party set off again up the street. Biddy and
Celestina--for now that Biddy's interest was awakened in the stranger
child she had no idea of giving her up to the others--in front; Rosalys
and her brother following; Jane Dodson, discreet and resigned, bringing
up the rear.

They had not far to walk, but Bridget's tongue made the most of its
opportunities.

'Have you got a doll-house, then?' she inquired of Celestina; and as the
little girl shook her head rather dolefully in reply, 'What do you get
furniture' (Biddy called it 'fenniture') 'for, then? Is it for
ornaments?'

'No; I've got a room, though not a doll-house,' Celestina replied. 'It
once was a kitchen, but I played with it too much when I was little, and
the things got spoilt. So father did it up for me with new paper like a
parlour--a best parlour, you know. Not a parlour like you use every
day.'

'I don't know what a parlour is,' said Biddy; 'we haven't got one at the
Rectory, and we hadn't one in London either. We've only got a
schoolroom, and a dining-room, and a droind-room, and a study for papa,
and----'

'I forgot,' said Celestina. 'I remember mother told me that they don't
call them parlours in big houses. It's a drawing-room I mean; only the
dolls have their dinner in it, because I haven't got a dining-room. They
haven't any bedroom either; but I put them to bed in a very nice little
basket, with a handkerchief and cotton-wool. It's very comfortable.'

'Yes?' said Bridget, greatly interested, 'and what more? Tell me,
please. It sounds so nice.'

'Sometimes,' Celestina went on--'sometimes I take them to the
country--on the table, you know--and then I build them a house with
books. It does very well if it's only a visit to the country, but it
wouldn't do for a always house, 'cos it has to be cleared away for
dinner.'

Biddy's mouth and eyes were wide open.

'We have dinner in the dining-room with papa and mamma,' she said; 'so
we don't need to clear away off the schoolroom table except for tea.
That's in London. I don't know where we're to have tea here, when Miss
Millet comes back. Don't you have dinner with your papa and mamma--when
they have luncheon, you know?'