the water, and held there till you had no breath,
and--"

"Oh, that would be horrible!" cried Mervyn with a frightened look;
"my papa would be angry if I were put into the sea in that way. Oh!
I will write and tell him if--"

"Well, I know he wrote to say that bathing would be very good for
you," said Bunny, "and mama told Miss Kerr this very morning she was
sure it would be. But I tell you, Mervyn, it's only Sophie that is
so rough and nasty. One day I went to bathe with Miss Kerr, and it
was lovely! She told me when she was going to dip me, and she let me
play at the edge, and I took dolly in and I dipped her, and it was
such fun."

"Well, then, I will ask Miss Kerr always to bathe me," replied
Mervyn; "I should die, I am sure, if I were pushed under the water
and could not get my breath."

"Oh! I was often and often pushed down that way by Sophie, and I
didn't die at all; but I kicked and screamed most dreadfully," cried
Bunny; "but then, mama says I am very strong, and Sophie said last
night that you were a misserble creature, so thin and white."

"Sophie is very rude!" exclaimed Mervyn with a slight flush; "I am
not a miserable creature; I can't help being white; everyone is in
India, because it's so hot."

"That is funny!" cried the little girl, "for Sophie said all Indians
were black, and I thought you would have a little black face like
Pussy here, only Miss Kerr told me you would be as white as me; but
you're whiter, much whiter," and she laid her small plump pink hand
on Mervyn's thin white one.

"I don't like your Sophie," cried Mervyn impatiently; "she talks in
such a queer way, and she's not half so nice as my dear old Indian
nurse. I do wish she had been able to stay in England with me."

"Oh, I think she was a horrid fright!" cried Bunny, "with her nasty
black face and her dreadful flappy wild dress, and I'm sure nobody
could understand a word she said."

"I could," said Mervyn with a sigh, "and I liked talking Hindustanee
much better than English."

"But it sounds so silly!" cried Bunny; "I think it's a great pity
people shouldn't always speak English everywhere, for that would be
so plain and easy."

"Well, I would much rather everyone would speak Hindustanee, for
that would be much nicer."

"Oh, dear! I don't think so," said Bunny; "and I think you speak
English very well."

"Do you?" said Mervyn, smiling; "papa did not; and do you know, I
can't always think of the right words for th