pray don’t frighten yourself!” replied
the servant, “it’s only that the young ladies have got baby, and
they’ve bought her all these toys, and sent me on to tell you that they
would be here directly!”

The perambulator was filled with expensive playthings useless for an
infant of six months’ old. Dolls, woolly sheep, fur cats, and gaily
coloured balls with a huge box of chocolates and caramels, were piled
one on the top of the other. But Mrs. Pullen’s face expressed nothing
but annoyance. “You had no right to let them take her, Nurse--you had no right to let
the child out of your sight! Go back at once and bring her here to me! I am exceedingly annoyed about it!”

“Here are the young ladies, Ma’am, and you had better lay your orders
on them, yourself, for they wouldn’t mind me,” said the nurse, somewhat
sullenly. In another minute Harriet Brandt, and Olga Brimont had reached her
side, the former panting under the weight of the heavy infant, but with
her face scarlet with the excitement of having captured her. “O! Miss Brandt!” cried Margaret, “you have given me such a fright! You
must never take baby away from her nurse again, please! As I told you
last night, she is afraid of strangers, and generally cries when they
try to take her! Come to me, my little one!” she continued, holding out
her arms to the child, “come to mother and tell her all about it!”

But the baby seemed to take no notice of the fond appeal. It had
its big eyes fixed upon Miss Brandt’s face with a half-awed,
half-interested expression. “O! no! don’t take her away!” said Harriet, eagerly, “she is so good
with me! I assure you she is not frightened in the least bit, are you,
my little love?” she added, addressing the infant. “And nurse tells me
her name is Ethel, so I have ordered them to make her a little gold
bangle with ‘Ethel’ on it, and she must wear it for my sake, darling
little creature!”

“But, Miss Brandt, you must not buy such expensive things for her,
indeed. She is too young to appreciate them, besides I do not like you
to spend so much money on her!”

“But why shouldn’t I? What am I to do with my money, if I may not spend
it on others?”

“But, such a quantity of toys! Surely, you have not bought all these
for my baby!”

“Of course I have! I would have bought the whole shop if it would have
pleased her! She likes the colours! Little darling! look how earnestly
she gazes at me with her lovely grey eyes, as if she knew what a little
beauty I think her! O! you pretty dear! you sweet pink and white baby!”

Mrs. Pullen felt somewhat annoyed as she saw the dolls and furry
animals which were strewn upon the sands, at the same time she was
flattered by the admiration exhibited of her little daughter, and the
endearments lavished upon her. She considered them all well deserved
(as what mother would not?) --and it struck her that Harriet Brandt must
be a kindhearted, as well as a generous girl to spend so much money on
a stranger’s child. “She certainly does seem wonderfully good with you,” she observed
presently, “I never knew her so quiet with anybody but her nurse or
me, before. Isn’t it marvellous, Nurse?”

“It is, Ma’am! Baby do seem to take surprisingly to the young lady! And perhaps I might go into the town, as she is so quiet, and get the
darning-wool for your stockings!”

“O! no! no! We must not let Miss Brandt get tired of holding her. She
is too heavy to be nursed for long!”

“Indeed, indeed she is not!” cried Harriet, “do let me keep her, Mrs.
Pullen, whilst nurse goes on her errand. It is the greatest pleasure to
me to hold her. I should like never to give her up again!”

Margaret smiled. “Very well, Nurse, since Miss Brandt is so kind, you can go!”

As the servant disappeared, she said to Harriet,

“Mind! you give her to me directly she makes your arm ache! I am more
used to the little torment than you are.”

“How can you call her by such a name, even in fun? What would I not
give to have a baby of my very own to do what I liked with? I would
never part with it, night nor day, I would teach it to love me so much,
that it should never be happy out of my sight!”

“But that would be cruel, my dear! Your baby might have to part with
you, as you have had to part with your mother!”

At the mention of her mother, something came into Miss Brandt’s eyes,
which Margaret could not define. It was not anger, nor sorrow, nor
remorse. It was a kind of sullen contempt. It was something that made
Mrs. Pullen resolve not to allude to the subject again. The incident
made her examine Harriet’s eyes more closely than she had done before. They were beautiful in shape and colour, but they did not look like
the eyes of a young girl. They were deeply, impenetrably black--with
large pellucid pupils, but there was no sparkle nor brightness in them,
though they were underlaid by smouldering fires which might burst forth
into flame at any moment, and which seemed to stir and kindle and then
go out again, when she spoke of anything that interested her. There was
an attraction about the girl, which Mrs. Pullen acknowledged, without
wishing to give in to. She could not keep her eyes off her! She seemed
to hypnotise her as the snake is said to hypnotise the bird, but it was
an unpleasant feeling, as if the next moment the smouldering fire would
burst forth into flame and overwhelm her. But watching her play with,
and hearing her talk to, her baby, Margaret put the idea away from
her, and only thought how kindly natured she must be, to take so much
trouble for another woman’s child. It was not long before Miss Leyton
found her way back to them, and as her glance fell upon Harriet Brandt
and the baby, she elevated her eyebrows. “Where is the nurse?” she demanded curtly. “She has gone to the shops to see if she can get some darning-wool,
and Miss Brandt was kind enough to offer to keep baby for her till she
returns. And O! Elinor, look what beautiful toys Miss Brandt has bought
her! Isn’t she too kind?”

“Altogether too kind!” responded Elinor. “By the way, Margaret, I found
our friend and transacted the little business we spoke of! But he says
his Mamma has ordered him to remain here, till she comes down to see
him bathe, and dry him, I suppose, with her own hands! And do I not
descry her fairy feet indenting the sands at this very moment, and
bearing down in our direction?”

“You could hardly mistake her for anything else!” replied Mrs. Pullen. In another minute the Baroness was upon them. “Hullo,” she called out, “you’re just in time to see Gustave bathe! He looks lovely in his bathing costume! His legs are as white as your
baby’s, Mrs. Pullen, and twice as well worth looking at!”

“Mein tear! mein tear!” remonstrated the Baron. “Don’t be a fool, Gustave! You know it’s the truth! And the loveliest
feet, Miss Leyton! Smaller than yours, I bet. Where’s that devil,
Bobby? I’m going to give ’im a dousing for his villainy this morning, I
can tell you! Once I get ’is ’ead under water, it won’t come up again
in a hurry!