rtitioned off with glass and boards from
the rest of the store, opened on the street. It was a laugh the old man
knew well, for he hopped behind a big pile of bales like a boy playing
hide-and-seek, and held his breath in expectation.

Presently, there bustled into the warehouse a vision of muslin and
ribbons. Her face was the face of an angel. It did not contain a feature
that might not have been a Madonna's. She had a lemon-yellow complexion,
brightened by a flush of carmine in the cheeks; her eyes were like two
large, lustrous, black pearls; her hair, parted in the middle, was
glossy and waving; her eyebrows were pencilled and black; her lips were
as red as the petals of the geranium. But though this galaxy of beauties
attracted, it was the exquisite moulding of the face that riveted the
attention of Packett, the Jew's storeman, who had conducted the dream of
loveliness to the scene.

She tapped the floor impatiently with her parasol.

"Fa-ther!"

She stamped her dainty foot in pretty anger.

"The aggravating old bird! I expect he's hiding somewhere."

There came a gurgling chuckle from amid the piled-up bales.

The girl stood, listening. "Come out of that!" she cried. But there was
never another sound--the chuckling had ceased.

She skirmished down a by-alley, and stormed a kopje of rugs and
linoleums; but found nothing except the store tom-cat in hiding on
the top. Having climbed down the further side, she found herself in a
difficult country of enamelled ware and wooden buckets, but successfully
extricating herself from this entanglement she ascended a spur of
carpet-rolls, and triumphantly crowned the summit of the lofty mountain
of wool-bales. The country round lay at her feet, and half-concealed
behind a barrel of Portland cement she saw the crouching form of the
enemy.

Her head was up among the timbers of the roof, and hanging to nails in
the cross-beams were countless twisted lengths of clothesline, and with
these dangerous projectiles she began to harass the foe. Amid the hail
of hempen missiles the white flag was hoisted, and the enemy
surrendered.

"Rachel! Rachel! Come down, my girl. You'll break your peautiful neck.
Packett, what you stand there for like a wooden verandah-post? Go up,
and help Miss Varnhagen down. Take care!--my 'tear Rachel!--look out for
that bucket!--mind that coil of rubber-belting! Pe careful! That bale of
hops is ofer! My 'tear child, stand still, I tell you; wait till