"I think it would be best for her to do as you wish," said Aunt Katharine, with a half smile at Philippa's pouting lips. "I _must_ go out with Dennis and Maisie," said the little girl in a whining voice. "Dennis and Maisie will be quite happy indoors," said Mrs Trevor entreatingly; "you can show them your new violin, you know, and play them a tune." "I don't want to," said Philippa, with a rising sob. Mrs Trevor looked alarmed. "My darling, don't excite yourself," she said; "we will see--we will ask Miss Mervyn. Perhaps if you are very warmly wrapped up." Philippa's brow cleared at once. "Then we may go?" she said. "Ask Miss Mervyn to come and speak to me a moment," said her mother. "Such a difficult, delicate temperament to deal with," she continued, as the door closed on her daughter. "Not like a commonplace nature," with a glance at Dennis and Maisie; "so excitable, that it makes her ill to be thwarted in any way. Indeed the doctor forbids it." "How bad for her!" said Aunt Katharine bluntly. "Children are never happy until they learn to obey." "That sort of system may answer with some children," said Mrs Trevor; "but my poor delicate Philippa requires infinite tact." "What do you think, Miss Mervyn," as a thin, careworn-looking lady entered, "of Philippa going out to-day? She wants to take her cousins into the garden for a little while." Miss Mervyn looked anxiously from mother to daughter. "She _has_ been coughing this morning, and the wind _is_ cold," she began, when she was interrupted by an angry burst of tears from Philippa. "I _must_ go out," she cried between her sobs. "You're a cross thing to say it's cold. I _will_ go out." "There, there, my darling," said Mrs Trevor; "do control yourself. You shall go.--Pray, Miss Mervyn, take care that she is warmly dressed, and has goloshes and a thick veil. You will, of course, go with the children, and keep to the sheltered places, and on no account allow Philippa to run on the grass or to get overheated." Philippa's tears and sobs ceased at once, and soon muffled up to the eyes, she was ready to go out with her cousins, followed by the patient Miss Mervyn, and Mrs Trevor was left at liberty to bestow some attention on her guest. As soon as they were out of sight of the windows, Philippa's first action was to tear off the white knitted shawl which was wrapped round her neck and mouth. "If you don't keep that on, we must go in again," said Miss Mervyn. "I won't wear it, and I won't go in," said Philippa. "If you tease about it, I shall scream, and then I shall be ill; and then it will be your fault."