screams of joy at the sight of her.

They were afraid to kiss her at first, even though she was engaged
to Peter Piper. She was so pretty and her frock had so much lace on
it that they were afraid their old rags might spoil her. But she
did not care about her lace and flew at them and kissed and hugged
them every one.

"I have so wanted to come here," she said. "It's so dull at the
Castle I had to break my leg just to get a change. The Duchess sits
reading near the fire with her gold eye-glasses on her nose and
Lady Gwendolen plays haughtily on the harp and Lady Muriel coldly
listens to her, and Lady Doris is always laughing mockingly, and
Lord Hubert reads the newspaper with a high-bred air, and Lord
Francis writes letters to noblemen of his acquaintance, and Lord
Rupert glances over his love letters from ladies of title, in an
aristocratic manner--until I could _scream_. Just to see you dears
dancing about in your rags and tags and laughing and inventing
games as if you didn't mind anything, is such a relief."

[Transcriber's Note: See picture rupert.jpg]

She nearly laughed her little curly head off when they all went
round the house with her, and Peter Piper showed her the holes in
the carpet and the stuffing coming out of the sofas, and the
feathers out of the beds, and the legs tumbling off the chairs. She
had never seen anything like it before.

"At the Castle, nothing is funny at all," she said. "And nothing
ever sticks out or hangs down or tumbles off. It is so plain and