ighted you, Pa.'

'My dear, I say it with all my heart. And might I likewise observe,' her
father delicately hinted, with a glance out at window, 'that perhaps
it might be calculated to attract attention, having one's hair publicly
done by a lovely woman in an elegant turn-out in Fenchurch Street?'

Bella laughed and put on his hat again. But when his boyish figure
bobbed away, its shabbiness and cheerful patience smote the tears out
of her eyes. 'I hate that Secretary for thinking it of me,' she said to
herself, 'and yet it seems half true!'

Back came her father, more like a boy than ever, in his release from
school. 'All right, my dear. Leave given at once. Really very handsomely
done!'

'Now where can we find some quiet place, Pa, in which I can wait for you
while you go on an errand for me, if I send the carriage away?'

It demanded cogitation. 'You see, my dear,' he explained, 'you really
have become such a very lovely woman, that it ought to be a very quiet
place.' At length he suggested, 'Near the garden up by the Trinity House
on Tower Hill.' So, they were driven there, and Bella dismissed the
chariot; sending a pencilled note by it to Mrs Boffin, that she was with
her father.

'Now, Pa, attend to what I am going to say, and promise and vow to be
obedient.'

'I promise and vow, my dear.'

'You ask no questions. You take this purse; you go to the nearest place
where they keep everything of the very very best, ready made; you buy
and put on, the most beautiful suit of clothes, the most beautiful hat,
and the most beautiful pair of bright boots (patent leather, Pa, mind!)
that are to be got for money; and you come back to me.'

'But, my dear Bella--'

'Take care, Pa!' pointing her forefinger at him, merrily. 'You have
promised and vowed. It's perjury, you know.'

There was water in the foolish little fellow's eyes, but she kissed them
dry (though her own were wet), and he bobbed away again. After half an
hour, he came back, so brilliantly transformed, that Bella was obliged
to walk round him in ecstatic admiration twenty times, before she could
draw her arm through his, and delightedly squeeze it.

'Now, Pa,' said Bella, hugging him close, 'take this lovely woman out to
dinner.'

'Where shall we go, my dear?'

'Greenwich!' said Bella, valiantly. 'And be sure you treat this lovely
woman with everything of the best.'

While they were going along to take boat, 'Don't you wish, my dear,'
said R. W.