Page:Alice Stuyvesant - The Vanity Box.djvu/201

 I've been sent down here again, to see what I can find out."

"You've found out all there is to find out in this house," replied Rose, quite sharply for her.

"Oh, I know that," "Cupid" assured her. "It isn't business that's brought me to you, though it has to the neighbourhood. I want nothing more nor less than to make my peace with that dear little girl of yours. I thought she was just about the best thing in the shape of a child I'd ever seen. Look what I've brought her—with my humblest apologies for the past, and hopes of making up for it in the future."

Then he opened a long box wrapped in paper, which he had been carrying under his arm, and revealed to the eyes of Rose and her daughter Poppet such a doll as few country-bred children have ever seen.

It lay asleep in its box, its golden head on a silk pillow trimmed with lace. Not only had it real hair, waving and curling to its waist, but the dark eyelashes on its shut lids were real, too. Its smiling red lips were slightly open, showing several tiny, even, white teeth, and as Gaylor lifted it up, at the same time manipulating some spring or string hidden under the dress of pink silk, muslin and lace, it said "Papa," "Mamma," as it opened large brown eyes.

Poppet, who had not dared to speak to the "nice grown-up" whom she had heard reviled by her family, could not restrain a cry of wonder and delight. Even