ry own? I mean you may do what you like with it?"
Red-Head went on, for he was a boy with a conscience.

"Of course it's my own. Do you think I'd steal?" exclaimed Jinny
indignantly, so indignantly that she omitted to answer his second
question, not even asking it of herself.

"No, no, of course not. But you know--_I_ wouldn't get leave to sell my
watch though it's my own. Only I suppose it's all because you've no
father and mother to look after you. It's very hard on you to have no
toys. I suppose girls can't live without dolls. But I say, tell me again
about the doll. I'll have to do it all at once, for we're going away
for the holidays the day after to-morrow."

"You're to get all the money you can, and the very prettiest doll you
can have for the money. With brown hair, remember--not light, we're
tired of light, we've all got it ourselves--and not black, black's
common."

"And not red, I suppose. You may as well say it. I don't mind."

"Well, no," said Ginevra hesitatingly. She would not for worlds have
hurt his feelings--no princess would so treat a trusty adherent--yet she
could not pretend to a weakness for red hair. "I _think_ we'd like brown
best."

"All right. Then to-morrow afternoon, just about this time. It's a
half-holiday--we're breaking up, but it's best to wait till dark for
fear you should get a scolding. I'll be here just about this time,
with--you know what."

"Thank you, oh thank you so much," and Ginevra held out her hand, half
expecting him to kiss it, instead of which, however, he gave it a
schoolboy shake.

"I can excuse it, however; he could not be expected to understand," she
said to herself as she flew up to the nursery.

[Illustration: THE SIX POOR LITTLE PRINCESSES

"Ginevra found herself running upstairs, though not so fast as the
evening before, for fear of dropping the precious parcel she held in her
arms." P. 71]

She could scarcely sleep that night, and the next morning it was all she
could do to keep her secret. But there was plenty of determination under
Princess Jinny's fair curls, and by dint of much squeezing of her lips
together and saying to herself what a pity it would be to spoil the
beautiful "surprise," she managed to get through the morning without
doing more than dropping some mysterious hints. But how long the day
seemed, short as it really was! Would it never get dark? For it was
clear and frosty, and the afternoon, to Jinny, appeared, out of
contradiction