se
bracelet, and I have a pair of long white gloves not touched yet. But
oh, mother, my parasol! It's dreadfully bleached with the sun. Do,
please, send for another. There's a picture of one here with little
frills all round, just what I want."

Belle's mind was so absorbed by the arrangement of her costume for the
coming party that, until the letters were written and finally dispatched
to the post, she could give no attention to Isobel, and in the short
walk which they took afterwards on the beach her whole conversation was
of the Oppenheims and the delightful afternoon she had spent at their
house.

"Blanche has five bracelets," she confided, "and four rings, and a
dressing-case full of lockets and chains and brooches. She took me
upstairs and showed them to me. She's brought her pony with her, and
some morning she's promised to borrow her sister's riding-skirt for me,
and the coachman is to take us on to the common to ride in turns. Won't
it be glorious? She's _such_ an amusing girl! She knows all the latest
songs, and you should just hear her take people off: it makes you die
with laughing. She's been a year at a jolly school near London, where
the girls are taken to _matinees_ at the theatre, and have a splendid
time. I mean to ask mother to send me there. It's dreadfully expensive,
but I know she wouldn't mind that."

"We missed you at the island to-day," said Isobel. "The pancakes were
delicious. We ate them with sugar and lemons."

"Did you?" said Belle inattentively. "Perhaps I may come to-morrow, if I
have time."

"To-morrow's the cricket match at the old playground," said Isobel. "We
always have it on Saturday, you know. Had you forgotten?"

"I suppose I had," replied Belle. "I'll bring Blanche, if she cares
about coming. I don't know whether she plays cricket."

On Saturday morning Isobel called early at No. 12, only to find that
Belle had already gone to the Oppenheims, and would not return until
lunch.

"I'm sorry she's not in, dear," said Mrs. Stuart kindly, noticing
Isobel's look of disappointment; "but she expects to see you in the
afternoon, I'm sure. She told me she would be meeting all her friends
upon the shore, so some of the others will no doubt know what has been
arranged, if you ask them. I believe I saw the Rokebys pass a moment
ago; you could soon overtake them if you were to run."

The matches on the small green common which had been their first
playground were still an institutio