safely."

"Oh, I can't promise that. I'm of rather careless habits, and I might
mislay her somewhere."

"Well, I'll trust you for this once. Mops, do you want to go to town with
Father?"

Marjorie's eyes flashed an answer, and Kitty exclaimed:

"Without us?"

"I grieve to disappoint you, Kitsie," said Mr. Maynard, "but you still
have your friend Dorothy. Midget is cruelly deprived of her chum, and so
for one day she is going to put up with a doddering old gentleman
instead. Get your bonnet and shawl, my child."

Marjorie looked at her mother for confirmation of this good news, and
receiving an answering smile, she excused herself from the table and ran
away to her room. Nannie helped her, and soon she tripped downstairs
prettily dressed in a dark blue cloth frock and jacket, a blue felt hat,
and her Christmas furs.

"Whew! what a fine lady!" said her father. "I shall have to don my best
hat and feathers, I think."

"I've lost my chum, too," said King, as he watched the pair about to
start.

"Yes, you have, my boy, but he wasn't your 'perfectly darling