"nous aurons aussi la fête dans notre rue."—russian proverb.

next day, when our drill in the long corridor was over, lady elizabeth told joseph to bring his fortress, guns, and soldiers into the library, and to play at the thirty years' war in the bay-window from a large book with pictures of sieges and battles, which she lent him.

to me my godmother turned very kindly and said, "i have invited your little friend maud to come and stay here for a week. i hope she will arrive to-day, so you had better prepare your dolls and your shops for company."

maud mary coming! i danced for joy, and kissed my godmother, and expressed my delight again and again. i should have liked to talk about it to joseph, but he had plunged into the thirty years' war, and had no attention to give me.

it was a custom in the neighbourhood where my mother lived to call people by double christian names, john thomas, william edward, and so forth; but my godmother never called maud mary anything but maud.

it was possible that my darling friend might arrive by the twelve o'clock train, and the carriage [256]was sent to meet her, whilst i danced up and down the big hall with impatience. when it came back without her my disappointment knew no bounds. i felt sure that the ibbetsons' coachman had been unpunctual, or dear maud mary's nurse had been cross, as usual, and had not tried to get her things packed. i rushed into the library full of my forebodings, but my godmother only said, "no grumbling, my dear!" and joseph called out, "oh, i say, selina, i wish you wouldn't swing the doors so: you've knocked down wallenstein, and he's fallen on the top of gustavus adolphus;" and i had to compose myself as best i could till the five o'clock train.

then she came. darling maud mary!

perhaps it was because i crushed her new feather in kissing her (and maud mary was very particular about her clothes); perhaps it was because she was tired with travelling, which i forgot; or perhaps it was because she would rather have had tea first, that maud mary was not quite so nice about the dutch fair as i should have liked her to be.

she said she rather wondered that lady elizabeth had not given me a big dolls' house like hers instead; that she had come away in such a hurry that she forgot to lock hers up, and she should not be the least surprised if the kitten got into it and broke something, but "it did seem rather odd" to be invited [257]in such a very hurried way; that just when she was going to a big house to pay a grand visit, of course the dressmaker "disappointed" mrs. ibbetson, but "that was the way things always did happen;" that the last time mr. ibbetson was in paris he offered to bring her a dolls' railway train, with real first-class carriages really stuffed, but she said she would rather have a locket, and that was the very one which was hanging round her neck, and which was much handsomer than lucy jane smith's, which cost five pounds in london.

maud mary's inattention to the fair and the dolls was so obvious that i followed my godmother's advice, and "made the best of it" by saying, "i'm afraid you're very much tired, darling?"

maud mary tossed her chin and frowned.

it was "enough to tire anybody," she said, to travel on that particular line. the railway of which her papa was a director was very differently managed.

i think my godmother's courtesy to us, and her thoughtful kindness, had fixed her repeated hints about self-control and good manners rather firmly in my head. i distinctly remember making an effort to forget my toys and think of maud mary's comfort.

i said, "will you come and take off your things, darling?" and she said, "yes, darling;" and then we had tea.

[258]

but next day, when she was quite rested, and had really nothing to complain of, i did think she might have praised the dutch fair.

she said it "seemed such a funny thing" to have to play in an old garret; but she need not have wanted to alter the arrangement of all the shops, and have everything her own way, as she always had at home, because, if her dolls' house was hers, my dutch fair was mine. i did think, for a moment, of getting my godmother to speak to her, but i knew it would be of no use to complain unless i had something to ask for. when i came to think of it, i found that what i wanted was that maud mary should let me manage my own toys and direct the game, and i resolved to ask her myself.

"look here, darling," said i, "when i come and play with you, i always play dolls as you like, because the dolls' house is yours; i wish you would play my game to-day, as the dutch fair is mine."

maud mary flounced to her feet, and bridled with her wavy head, and said she was sure she did not want to play if i didn't like her way of playing; and as to my dutch fair, her papa could buy her one any day for her very own.

i was nettled, for maud mary was a little apt to flourish mr. ibbetson's money in my face; but if her father was rich, my godmother was a lady of rank, [259]and i said that "my godmother, lady elizabeth, said it was very vulgar to flounce and toss one's head if one was put out."

maud mary crimsoned, and, exclaiming that she did not care what lady elizabeth or lady anybody else said, she whisked over three shops with the ends of her sash, and kicked the wax off josephine esmeralda's nose with the heel of her balmoral boot.

i don't like confessing it, but i did push maud mary, and maud mary slapped me.

and when we both looked up, my godmother was standing before us, with her gold spectacles on her nose.

lady elizabeth was very kind, and even then i knew that she was very right.

when she said, "i have asked your friend for a week, and for that week, my dear, she is your guest, and you must try to please, and make the best of it," i not only did not dispute it; i felt a spirit of self-suppression and hospitable pride awake within me to do as she had said.

i think the hardest part of it was that, whatever i did and whatever i gave up, maud mary recognized no effort on my part. what she got she took as her due, and what she did not get she grumbled about.

i sometimes think that it was partly because, in [260]all that long week, she never ceased grumbling, that i did; i hope for life.

only once i said, "o godmamma! how glad i shall be when i am alone with joseph again!" and with sudden remorse, i added, "but i beg your pardon, that's grumbling; and you have been so kind!"

lady elizabeth took off her eye-glasses, and held out her hands for mine.

"is it grumbling, little woman?" she said. "well, i'm not sure."

"i'm not sure," i said, smiling; "for you know i only said i should be so glad to be alone with joseph, and to try to be good to him; for he is a very kind boy, and if he is a little awkward with the dolls, i mean to make the best of it. one can't have everything," i added, laughing.

lady elizabeth drew my head towards her, and stroked and kissed it.

"god bless you, child," she said. "you have inherited your father's smile."

"but, i say, selina," whispered joseph, when i went to look at his fortress in the bay-window. "do you suppose it's because he's dead that she cried behind her spectacles when she said you had got his smile?"