unpleasant at length, that he could bear them no longer; he could not sit
there and face the accusations of his conscience; so he jumped up hastily,
and went out without saying a word to his child, slammed the little caravan
door after him, and sauntered down the marketplace. Here he met some of his
friends, who rallied him on his melancholy appearance, and offered to treat
him to a glass in the nearest public-house. And there Augustus Joyce
banished all thoughts of his wife, and stifled the loud, accusing voice of
his conscience. When he returned to the theatre for dinner, he appeared as
hard and selfish as ever, and never even asked how his wife was before he
sat down to eat. Perhaps he dreaded to hear the answer to that question.

And that evening Rosalie was obliged to take her part in the play; her
father insisted on it; it was impossible for him to spare her, he said, and
to fill up both her place and her mother's also. Rosalie begged him most
earnestly to excuse her, but all in vain; so with an aching heart she went
to the Royal Show of Dwarfs and asked for Mother Manikin.

The good little woman was indignant when Rosalie told her she was not
allowed to stay with her mother, and promised immediately to come and sit
beside the poor woman in her absence. The other dwarfs rather grumbled at
this arrangement; but Mother Manikin shook her little fist at them, and
called them hard-hearted creatures, and declared that old age must have its
liberties. She had been entertaining the company all the afternoon, and
must have a little rest this evening.

'Oh, Mother Manikin!' said Rosalie; 'and you had no sleep last night.'

'Oh, my dear, I'm all right,' said the good little woman. 'I had a nap or
two this morning. Don't trouble about me; and Miss Mab and Master Puck
ought to be ashamed of themselves for wanting me when there's that poor