g o'er again the siege of Troy
on the floor, with wooden bricks, shells, and the survivors of a Noah's
ark, while Ethel read to Margaret until Gertrude's descent from the
nursery, when the only means of preventing a dire confusion in Aubrey's
camp was for her elder sisters to become her playfellows, and so spare
Aubrey's temper. Ethel good-humouredly gave her own time, till their
little tyrant trotted out to make Norman carry her round the garden on
his back.

So sped the morning till Flora came home, full of the intended bazaar,
and Ethel would fain have taken refuge in puzzling out her Spanish, had
she not remembered her recent promise to be gracious.

The matter had been much as she had described it. Flora had a way of
hinting at anything she thought creditable, and thus the Stoneborough
public had become aware of the exertions of the May family on behalf of
Cocksmoor.

The plan of a fancy fair was started. Mrs. Hoxton became more interested
than was her wont, and Flora was enchanted at the opening it gave for
promoting the welfare of the forlorn district. She held a position which
made her hope to direct the whole. As she had once declared, with truth,
it only had depended on themselves, whether she and her sisters should
sink to the level of the Andersons and their set, or belong to the
county society; and her tact had resulted in her being decidedly--as the
little dressmaker's apprentice amused Ethel by saying--"One of our most
distinguished patronesses"--a name that had stuck by her ever since.

Margaret looked on passively, inclined to admire Flora in everything,
yet now and then puzzled; and her father, in his simple-hearted way,
felt only gratitude and exultation in the kindness that his daughter
met with. As to the bazaar, if it had been started in his own family, he
might have weighed the objections, but, as it was not his daughter's own
concern, he did not trouble himself about it, only regarding it as one
of the many vagaries of the ladies of Stoneborough.

So the scheme had been further developed, till now Flora came in with
much to tell. The number of stalls had been finally fixed. Mrs. Hoxton
undertook one, with Flora as an aide-de-camp, and some nieces to assist;
Lady Leonora was to chaperon Miss Rivers; and a third, to Flora's
regret, had been allotted to Miss Cleveland, a good-natured, merry,
elderly heiress, who would, Flora feared, bring on them the whole
"Stoneborough crew." And then she bega