children as they caught sight
of a tall, dark figure, half-concealed by a carved screen, and even in
the dusk Bluebell discerned the expression of amused attention and
half-satirical smile on his lips.

"I saw him first!" cried Lola, jumping up exultingly. "He has been
standing there ever so long, but he made me a sign not to tell."

"I wanted to hear Miss Leigh's story," interposed Bertie; "but it is
only the plain Princesses _that_ Giant gets hold of, and then the fairy
Princes are too busy with the beauties ever to come and rescue them!"

Bluebell was almost unnerved by the surprise of his unlooked-for
appearance. A real Prince Philander had come at her invocation; whether
he was to overthrow the Giant, or strengthen his hands, remained to be
proved.

She had a dim impression of presenting him to the Misses Palmer with a
mortified recollection of her own absurd "make-up," and then sat down,
quite faint from the uncontrollable beating of her heart.

Perhaps it was to relieve her he was so amiably making conversation with
Coey and Crickey; and exceedingly well they were getting on, she began to
think, recovering rather rapidly when not the object of any particular
attention.

"And you have been shut up here all day without any exercise?" she heard
him say. "That's very bad. Suppose we play hide-and-seek and run about
all over the house;" and, clamorously supported by the children, the
motion was carried, and the game commenced.

Bluebell, who was under the influence of strong feeling, thought it most
sickening folly, and wished that Mrs. Rolleston would come in and stop
it; but she was charitably reading to a sick fisherman close by, and,
perhaps, weather bound. Miss Prosody was taking a peaceful afternoon
snooze; and if she did hear the scampering about the house, they were not
unaccustomed sounds on a wet day.

It had struck Bluebell that the game might have been a _ruse_ of Du
Meresq's to get a word with her in private; but Estelle came up in fits
of laughing, to tell her that Bertie and Crickey were hid together in the
cupboard. This was too much, and she walked coldly downstairs and out of
the game.

Coey went in search of her sister, who bounded down directly after with a
very red face; and soon Mrs. Rolleston came in, full of exclamations and
inquiries.

Du Meresq said,--"He and Lascelles had got a week's leave, and had come
to the hotel for some duck-shooting."

"And Cecil won't be back till Thur