for coins, and the rest are each for a separate
country. He's very careful over them; he won't let us take anything
out ourselves, or even handle some of them, he's so afraid they might
get broken. Still, it's fun to look, even if we mayn't touch."

"I expect it's a thousand times nicer than my museum at home," said
Sylvia, "though I have a cabinet in the schoolroom."

"I haven't seen your museum yet, so I can't say, but I'm sure you'll
enjoy Dr. Severn's. We've been to tea twice before, and each time
we've had raspberry sandwich and plumcake and little crisp cocoanut
biscuits. I hope the housekeeper will make them to-day. There's always
the most delicious apricot jam, too, and he hands round a big jug of
cream, and tells us to help ourselves. Then there's a horizontal bar
in the garden that the boys love; they do some of the things on it
that they learn in the gymnasium at school; and there's a tank with
pink water lilies growing in it, only I don't think they'll be out
just yet. I'm so glad he's asked us to-day, because I want you to go
and see it all."

"What a good thing Miss Coleman managed to put that clean dress in my
bag!" said Sylvia. "What should I have done without it? I got this in
quite a mess yesterday."

"I should have had to lend you one of my white muslins, and I'm sure
they'll be too short for me this year, so they would be far too small
for you; you're an inch taller than I am, though you're so much
thinner. We're both to wear our sailor hats. Mother said I couldn't
put on my last year's Sunday summer one if you hadn't your best with
you, and of course it isn't a party."

The invitation was for four o'clock, and by half-past three Mrs.
Marshall had succeeded in getting the prospective guests into what she
considered a sufficient state of tidiness for the occasion.

It was about twenty minutes' walk to Dale Side, a pretty modern
bungalow which had been built by an English gentleman with a leaning
towards the picturesque, and who had therefore chosen the site to
secure the most beautiful views, and had made the interior as artistic
as his excellent taste could devise. After living there a few years,
the owner, on account of his wife's health, had gone to reside in
Italy, and the little property had been on sale until the preceding
summer, when it had been purchased, together with a few acres of land,
by Dr. Severn, who was a newcomer to the neighbourhood. Though he was
therefore only a comparati