emed as taken with Pollyooly's serious outlook on
life as with the charm of the Lump; and presently she asked her if her
mother would let them come to tea with Kathleen and Mary and to games on
the sands after it that afternoon.

Pollyooly explained that they were staying with their cousin John, who
had gone to golf at Littlestone and would not be back till late;
therefore she accepted the invitation herself. Mrs. Gibson was impressed
by the discovery that cousin John was the Honourable John Ruffin; but she
expressed her surprise that he should have gone away for the day and left
them to themselves without a nurse to look after them. Pollyooly, with
an air of considerable dignity, assured her that she would never dream of
trusting the Lump to a nurse; and Mrs. Gibson admitted that she was right.

Pollyooly and the Lump enjoyed the party exceedingly. There were a dozen
children, fellow-guests; and at tea the manners of the Lump, under
Pollyooly's anxious eye, were beyond reproach. Her hands indeed troubled
her, and she kept them out of sight as much as she could. After all they
were not very large hands to withdraw from view. After tea the younger
children played in the charge of nurses; the elder children, to the
extreme delight of Pollyooly, who loved to run fleetly, disported
themselves in more swift and violent games. She had much to tell the
Honourable John Ruffin on his return from Littlestone. He congratulated
her warmly on their debut.

The next day she found herself well launched in the society of the sands,
with many playmates, and entered upon the fullest and most delightful
life. But there is always a fly in the finer ointments; and the
Pyechurch fly was Prince Adalbert of Lippe-Schweidnitz.

That morning Pollyooly had her first sight of him. She and the Lump were
playing with Kathleen and Mary, when Kathleen cried in a tone of dismay,
"Here's the prince!" picked up Mary, who would have gone quicker on her
own feet, and staggered off toward their nurse with her.

Pollyooly picked up the Lump and came with her, though she could see no
reason for Kathleen's dismay, for the prince was but a fat little boy of
ten, small-eyed, thick-lipped, and snub-nosed. His white sailor suit
seemed to give his ugliness its full values.

Under the wing of their nurse Kathleen and Mary surveyed him with the
eyes of terror; and Kathleen poured into Pollyooly's attentive ear the
story of his dreadful doings: how he