off with Rosalys and Randolph, under their maid's charge, for a visit to
Seacove, the wonderful bazaar being the real object of the walk.

Only a very slight misgiving came over her as papa stooped to kiss her
in the doorway; they met him on their way out.

'Be a sensible little woman to-day, my Biddy,' he said, 'and don't get
into any scrapes to worry your mamma.'

The child looked up into his face. Was it the yellowish morning light
from over the sea--for it was clear and bright though cold--that made
papa's face so pale? And yesterday he had looked so nice and rosy--Biddy
felt rather strange; for the first time in her little life there came
over her a faint, very faint shadow of _the_ shadow which, as we grow
older, we learn cannot be avoided; the wings of the solemn angel seemed
for an instant to brush her softly. Biddy trembled without understanding
why.

'Papa, dear papa,' she said, but somehow no other words would come.

He kissed her again, and he smiled. It seemed to brighten up his face.
Bridget gave a sigh of relief: the potato boy's papa had got well, and
very likely he too looked pale sometimes. Still that strange breath of
feeling had left some result.

'Alie,' she said, as she trotted down the garden path beside her sister,
the sixpence tightly clasped in her hand, 'is there anything I could get
for a present for two of my pennies? I want to get some of the toys for
myself with papa's three pennies, and I want to get a thimble with one,
'cos I've lost mine, and my workbox is messy-looking.'