s awful exciting!"

"All right, I'm sorry, only you pinched me too--go on about Selina!"
cried Viva in a breath. She kissed her sister on the cheek, and fat
little Inda smiled complacently, and repeated, "Go on 'bout S'lina!"

Outside in the passage father and mother looked at each other with
sparkling eyes.

"My dear, she is worth a fortune to us!" cried Mr Wallace rapturously.
"She understands children, and they understand her; the girlies will be
as good as gold under her care. I'll tell Spencer to bring round the
carriage and send her home in state, and to-morrow afternoon without
fail you must strike a bargain with Mistress Bridgie!"

CHAPTER SIXTEEN.

VIVA'S STORY.

Pixie drove home in state, so puffed up with her own importance that it
was a distinct blow to find the curtains comfortably drawn, and hear the
echo of laughter from the drawing-room. In all the books which she had
ever read, candles were left burning in the windows to guide the
footsteps of wanderers from the fold, to say nothing of bellmen parading
the streets, and anxious relatives rushing from one police station to
another. Here, however, all was peace and contentment, and, incredible
as it appeared, no one seemed to have been the least agitated about her
prolonged absence.

Bridgie was perched on a stool in the centre of the fire rug, relating
the history of the day's shopping to the three brothers, and she nodded
cheerily at the little sister as she entered, and saluted her with
unconcerned composure.

"Well, dear, here you are! Tired after your long day?"

Pixie sank down on the corner of the sofa, and yawned with a nonchalant
air. If there was one thing which she loved above everything else in
the world, it was to make an impression and be the centre of attraction,
and it was not likely that she was going to let slip such an opportunity
as the present.

"'Deed I'm not tired," she said genially. "Carriage exercise was always
more to my fancy than walking about the streets. If we'd been meant to
walk, wouldn't we have had four legs the same as the horses, and if we
haven't, doesn't it show that they were meant to do it for us? So when
he said the butler should get me the carriage, it wasn't likely I was
going to refuse, and up I drove to the very door!"

Jack stopped short in the middle of crossing the room, Pat peered round
the corner of his chair and twinkled with mischievous enjoyment,
Bridgie's eyes opened as wide