ny form at any time, and might return to her
real home with the fairies at any moment; who laughed still more merrily
when she vowed she would upset the boat.

"I can swim like a duck," said Rosamund, "and I am a great deal bigger
than you are; and, clever as you think yourself, you would be no match
for me in the water."

In the end the merry laugh, the good nature, the charm and beauty of the
face, touched something which had never yet been awakened in Irene's
wild little heart. She turned to her oar, and they rowed quite silently,
and soon both girls landed on the shore. There they found Lady Jane
awaiting them.

"As you did not get leave, dear, to come here to-day, I think I had
better take you back myself to the Merrimans', for I should like to see
Mr. Merriman and have a chat with him; so will you come straight with me
to the carriage?"

"May I come too?" asked Irene suddenly.

"No, dear, I think not. I could not take you in that red frock. If you
were to put on a white dress, perhaps; but I think not to-day, Irene."

Lady Jane looked anxiously at her little daughter. Irene gave a wild
laugh, which really sounded to poor Rosamund as scarcely human, and the
next moment, with a whoop, she disappeared into the thick shrubbery of
young trees near by. Her voice could then be heard calling, "Frosty!
Frosty! come at once;" and then a thin and very emaciated woman was seen
coming out of a summer-house just beyond.

Meanwhile Lady Jane put her hand on Rosamund's arm.

"You have done wonders," she said. "You amaze me. I scarcely know how to
thank you. Come with me at once. I must see more of you; but you will
have to go home now."

Rosamund took the lady's hand, and they walked up to the house, where an
open landau was waiting for them. They drove quickly through the summer
air. Rosamund remained silent, afraid to speak, and yet longing to say
something. It was not until they had gone nearly a mile that Lady Jane
broke the silence.

"I have always felt that if her heart could be touched she would be all
right," was her first remark. "I think, somehow, you have touched it.
She has been a great and dreadful trial to me--her extraordinary
spirits, the way she fears nothing, the impossibility of giving her the
slightest discipline, the--the"----

Here the poor lady burst into tears.

"Oh, don't, Lady Jane!" said Rosamund. "I am not a very good girl
myself, and perhaps that is why I partly understand her. At the p