"Well," said Bess, "I don't rightly understand monies, so I told Mr. ---- to take out what he wanted. But he said there wasn't quite enough; so I said I would bring the rest next Saturday, when I got paid up for my good-conduct marks, if it wasn't very much. And he said, 'Don't mention it, miss, only sixpence more.' "So, then," pursued Bess, "he did up the little packet, and if a shopman does not know what is good for a person with a broken leg, who should, I should like to know," and Bess looked round her triumphantly. Then my little maid went on to say, "I stuck on the label that Burbidge wrote for me, and that he did for me in the tool-house when we two were alone; but he put Miss, not Fräulein, as we neither of us knew how to spell it. But we wrote governess below, and Roderick, who, Burbidge says, is a scholar, put in '_her_ with the broken leg,' so they were sure to understand. And then Mr. ---- stuck it with his tongue--for it was all gummy--and I and he pressed it down tight, and then Liza and I carried it off to the post-office, and that is all." Then Bess added, with a catch in her throat, "I haven't been wicked this time. Nana says it's wicked to spend my money without telling you; but I say I must _pay off_ God, for I want to be happy as princes and princesses are happy in fairy-stories." Bess's attitude of mind was a little difficult to follow, as is often the case with children; but as I felt that the whole funny little business had sprung more from childish kindness than anything else, all I did was to kiss my little maid and say, "Fräulein will be pleased." Bess left me beaming. "My mama," I heard her say later to her old nurse, "says there is no harm in what I did; and that I may give cigarette-cases or whatever I like to governesses who break their legs." Two days later Miss Weldon received a letter from Fräulein Schlieman, returning the case, and saying with some asperity-- "I do not smoke, whatever they believe of German women in England." Bess, on receiving back her gift, was filled with indignation. "Why cannot governesses smoke?" she asked. "If I was a governess I should smoke to oblige." And then, in a fit of virtuous fury, she handed over the case to Burbidge, with the lofty command of "Smoke at once." Later on, my little daughter told me, "I couldn't help it if Fräulein didn't smoke." And then added, "Anyway, God knows I spent my money on her, and Burbidge says that's sure to count." CHAPTER IV _APRIL_ "Strowe me the ground with daffodoundilles And cowslips and king-cups, and loved lillies, The pretie pawnce, And the cheveraunce Shall match with the fayre flowre Delice." SPENSER, _Shepherd's Calendar_.