view of one way of approach to the back premises of the house, and little Gertrude was stationed in the opposite direction. Now, stay there,' he said, 'Gerty, dear, and listen; you will, won't you? and if you hear anyone coming, you've only to say "Dick" as loud as you can, and I shall be sure to hear you.'

But Gerty, who would do anything under her brother's protection, did not like the idea of remaining there alone, and her small face was puckering up for a burst of crying, when Dick said, encouragingly, 'You know, Gerty, dear, I'm close by, and we'll have such a feast presently, and you shall have the best of everything;' and without waiting for an answer, he left his little sister among the tall shrubs, and ran off to the scene of operation.

Alice forgot her misgiving in the excitement of the task. It was certainly great fun when Dick brought her his first booty and she conveyed it to the wood, and she went backwards and forwards as fast as her steps could carry her, laden with the goodly spoil. She

was in the middle of her third journey-this time with a bowl of cream that had been placed ready for dessert-when Gerty's voice was heard: Dick, Dick! do come, Dick!' And as the small powers of endurance came to an end, there was a loud burst of crying. Other ears besides Dick's and Alice's heard it. The drawing-room bell rang violently, and Babette was despatched to see what was the matter. Alice tried ineffectually to reach the wood; the cream splashed over her clean Holland frock, and Babette was in full pursuit of the fugitive. Dick, who was looking on, and seemed to think the discovery a part of the play, clapped his hands, and called to his sister to leave her prize and escape; but Alice's courage had been already taxed to the uttermost and was beginning to wane. It was no use defying Babette, for the power was all on one side, and the humiliation of defeat was only increased by delay; so Alice made the best of it by a very humble apology. Few little girls could have made their excuses more

nicely and winningly than Alice did, and they sounded all the prettier from the broken German in which they were couched; but Babette was inexorable, and Dick and his sister, almost without a hearing, were pronounced 'unverbesserlich' (incorrigible).

The fun for that day was at an end; the little ones were conveyed indoors, and placed in solitary confinement on two stools in the nursery, and forbidden, under heavy penalty, to find amusement in their wearisome punishment. Dick and Alice remained in the garden-Dick cross and out of sorts, and Alice provokingly repentant. Dick had still hopes that the wild life he had read of was practicable; but it was not so, even he was obliged to confess, so long as Alice refused to help him in it. To escape Babette's surveillance was the one object of Dick's life; but a little girl, with frocks and sashes and long hair to be kept in order, knows that such surveillance is necessary to her very existence, and succumbs accordingly. With Dick, Babette had but one powerful threat, and

that was, to tell his father. She had no authority of her own with him, and she knew it, but she knew also that there was no one of whom Dick stood in such awe as he did of his father; and Mr. Stanley could at times be harsh enough and loud enough to suit even Babette's desires.

Mr. Stanley had some peculiar views about his children. He liked to have them at home, though rarely in his company; he liked them to be to a certain extent free from control, and yet he was surprised that, in following their own devices, they too often followed them to do evil, and day after day, as Babette complained of their misdemeanours, he asserted his resolve to send them to school-a resolve that came to nothing. He had come to Germany for his wife's health; and little as she saw of her children, on account of her delicacy, she could not bear them separated from her. And Mr. Stanley never thwarted his wife's wishes. Whatever she liked or fancied or desired, whatever money could procure or