"He has forgotten all about it by now. It is unfair to disturb a man of his nature with these trivial details." I slipped the notes into my pocket. "Have you no purse, dear?" "Upstairs," I said. "Well, be careful of the money. Don't lose it." "I'll be very careful; thank you so much." I went out into the hall. Charley was there. "I say, Dumps!" "What is it, Charley?" "Von Marlo and I have been talking about the new mamma." "You are not to call her that." "But I say she is, you know; and Von and I, we say--" "I don't want to hear." "But you shall--you must! We say she is _awfully_ jolly--just A1, A1-- and that--" But I rushed past. There was a choking lump in my throat; in another minute I should have burst into tears. I managed to reach my own pretty new bedroom without disgracing myself. I shut and locked the door and stood in the centre of the room. The crisp five-pound notes rustled in my pocket, but I, Dumps--in other words, Rachel Grant--stamped my foot. I was in an absolute passion. I did not know why I felt so thoroughly angry. What unreasonable creatures girls are! Three months ago I would have given anything for my present surroundings and my present prospects: I, who hardly ever had a penny of my own; I, who was only half-fed and only half-clothed, who was desolate, without a real friend in the world; for my father--my dear old father--lived for ever and ever in Wonderland, and no one could bring him bock from that strange country, where he dwelt with other geniuses of his kind, and I and the boys had to suffer; and Hannah, notwithstanding her protestations, neglected us so shamefully that the wonder was we were not ill. All of a sudden, however, "Open sesame!" and behold a new order of things! The old order had given way to the new. We were clothed; we were fed; we were considered; we were treated with kindness; our wants were attended to, our little trials sympathised with. In short, love in the true sense of the word had come into the house; the genius of Wonderment had taken to himself the genius of Order and Motherly Kindness, and this latter genius had made the whole house home-like and happy. But I, at least, was not prepared to take into my heart this good fairy whom the good queen of all the fairies had sent to us. I stood in my pretty room which my step-mother had arranged for me, and felt as angry and as bitter as girl could feel. By-and-by there came a cheerful sound on the stairs. My step-mother knocked at the door. "Augusta Moore is downstairs and would like to see you, Dumps," she said. "It is a beautiful, sunshiny morning, and you may as well go out with her."