real thing, and we _must_ settle about the
colour. How do you think," he went on seriously, "it would do to have
it the same colour that Tuvvy's going to do the elevator? He might let
us have some of his paint, you see."

"I shouldn't like it at all," said Maisie promptly; "he said it was to
be a sort of a yaller, and I thought it sounded very ugly."

"Well, then," said Dennis, "you say a colour."

Maisie thought it over, her eyes fixed on the meadows and the
fast-falling rain outside.

"I should paint it green," she said suddenly.

"Why?" asked Dennis.

"Because it's a pretty colour," she replied, "and the jackdaws would
like it. It's like the leaves and grass, and they might think they were
in a tree."

Dennis received the idea with a short laugh of contempt.

"Jackdaws are not such ninnies as that," he said. "They're sharp birds;
they're not likely to mistake a cage for a tree. If we don't have it
yellow, let's have it bright red, like Mr Solace's new wagon."

Maisie had known from the first that her opinion was merely asked as a
matter of form, Dennis would have the colour he wished and no other; so
she made no further objection, and it was settled, subject to Aunt
Katharine's approval, that the jackdaws' house should be painted the
brightest red possible to get. This done, Maisie retired into a corner
of the play-room with Madam, and related to her attentive ear the
discovery of that morning.--She was a better listener than Dennis, for
at any rate she was not eager to talk on other matters, but Maisie
longed to tell some one who really cared as much as she did herself.
Aunt Katharine would be home soon, which was a comfort, and perhaps
Philippa too would like to know. She had never seen the grey kitten,
but she had heard about it so very often. Maisie made up her mind to
write to her. She would have been surprised if she had known that
Philippa also had made a discovery, and bad news to tell her of Madam's
lost child. To hear what this discovery was, we must go back to the day
when Philippa went home after her visit to Fieldside.

CHAPTER ELEVEN.

PHILIPPA MAKES A DISCOVERY.

When Philippa, looking back from her seat in the carriage by Mrs
Trevor's side, could no longer see Dennis and Maisie making signs of
farewell, she leaned back with a pout of discontent. Her visit to
Fieldside was over, and she had been so happy, that it seemed flat and
dull to be going home with only Miss Mervyn