. "Open
the window and let her come in."

Madge flung open the window. Light as a thistledown, the unexpected
little visitor landed in the center of the room.

Madge and Eleanor had completely forgotten the elfin child they had met
in the slums of New York City; but now she appeared among them just as
mysteriously as though she were the fairy she pretended to be.

She wore a small red coat that was half a dozen sizes too tiny for her.
Her skirt was patched with odds and ends of bright flowered materials. On
her head perched a cap, a scarlet flower, cut from an odd scrap of old
wall paper. In her hands Tania clasped a ridiculous bundle, done up in a
dirty handkerchief.

"You strange little witch!" exclaimed Madge. "However did you find your
way here? Be very still and good until the lovely lady who owns this
house sees you, then I wouldn't be at all surprised if she gave you some
cake and ice cream before she sends you away."

Tania sat down in the corner still as a mouse. Her thin knees were
hunched close together. She held her poor bundle tightly. Her big black
eyes grew larger and darker with wonder as she had her first glimpse of a
fairyland, outside her own imagination, in the beautiful room and the
group of lovely girls who occupied it.

Mrs. Curtis came in a minute later, followed by a man who had been one of
the guests at the wedding. Madge, Eleanor, and Tania recognized him
instantly. He was the young man who had protected Tania from the blows of
the brutal woman the afternoon before, but Tania did not seem pleased to
see him. Her face flushed hotly, her lips quivered, though she made no
sound.

Mrs. Curtis smiled quizzically. Madge could see that there were tears
behind her smiles. "Who is our latest guest, Madge?" she asked, gazing
kindly at the odd little person.

Tania rose gravely from her place on the floor. "I am a fairy who has
been under the spell of a wicked witch," she asserted with solemnity,
"but now the spell is broken and I've run away from her. I shan't go back
ever any more."

Mrs. Curtis's young man guest took the child firmly by the shoulders.

"What do you mean by coming here to trouble these young ladies?" he
demanded sternly. "I thought I recognized your friends, Mrs. Curtis. They
saved this child yesterday from a punishment she probably well deserved.
She is one of the children in our slum neighborhood that we have not been
able to reach. I will take her back to her home with m