"’’Twas down at Ballina Fair, Cailins and boys were gaily tripping it there, And I the soul of the spree, When I set eyes on Kitty Magee. Her smile so sweet, her step so neat, Hide and seek her two little feet; Gliding just like a swan at sea, Handsome, winsome Kitty Magee. And now I’m dreaming all day, Sighing from dark to dawn, and wasting away, Like a lone bird on a tree, Pining the long hours through for Kitty Magee, At dance or wake no—" Bang! The song died abruptly. The hopeless muddle on the easel was dabbed at, made more and more oily. "Eileen!" Nell went out on to the landing. "Yes, Aunt Kezia?" "Please clean your brushes and put away your paints and all that smells so horribly, at once! The house reeks, and I have a friend coming to see me this afternoon!" Nell said, "Yes, Aunt Kezia," and a gleam lit her eye. She went back to the Stronghold, and washed her brushes with slow care in turpentine. There was an air of waiting about her. She lifted Jim into his cage, and dropped it behind the lounge. Presently an irate voice rang up the stairs:— "Eileen! _Eileen_!" Ah expression of grim satisfaction overspread her features. The voice ascended with its owner. "How dare you, Eileen? What is this horrible smell?" "Smell, Aunt Kezia? Do you mean the turps?" "I suppose so! It is _filthy_! I told you I expect a visitor. It is positively disgraceful—" "You told me to wash my brushes, Aunt Kezia." Nell’s tone was as soft as butter. "Certainly I told you to! You are being unwarrantably impertinent! You—" "But I am only washing my brushes as you told me, Aunt Kezia!" "What do you mean?" "You have to wash them in turpentine, Aunt Kezia." Miss Kezia had a moment of hesitation; her face reddened. Nell dipped a brush into the tin washer. "Then cease washing them at once! Open the window, and keep the door shut." She closed the door behind her with such a very decisive click that it might almost have been designated a bang. Nell smiled wryly. She cleared up a little, then went to the window and looked out. Kate Kearney came to her, and begged to look, too. Nell sat down, and K.K. jumped into her lap. "They don’t allow dogs at Madame Tussaud’s, K.K. Bad taste. But they do allow Nells—even bad-tempered ones; but she wasn’t wanted, you see. Oh, K.K., you must get off!" She rose restlessly. She looked down at a pathetic Kate Kearney, and exclaimed suddenly:— "We’ll go for a walk!" The pathos of Kate Kearney vanished in a black whirl of ecstatic body and tail. Nell went to put on her boots. "We’ll go for a long, long walk, and we’ll come back on top of an omnibus, K.K. It’s such a glorious day for a walk, isn’t it? Oh, heavenly! But we’ll go." In the hall they came upon Miss Kezia. Nell’s slim body stiffened suddenly; a feeling of desperation seized her.