“Do you like it?” asked Kitty, fascinated by this strange child.  Vivian was a pretty little girl, and she wore a garment of pink muslin, shaped like children’s rompers.  She wore pink stockings and pink kid sandals, and her golden hair was short, and curled all over her little head.

“Yes, I like it,” replied Vivian, but a wistful look came into her blue eyes.  Gently, almost timidly, she touched Marjorie’s pretty coat and straw hat with her slender little fingers.  “I like it,—­but I think I’d rather be a little home-girl like you.”

“Cora, send those children away,” said the mother, sharply.  “They upset Vivian completely when she sees them.”

“I like to see them,” said Vivian, and she sat down between Kitty and Midget.  “I like to see your pretty dresses, and real shoes and stockings.  Do you go to school?”

Marjorie felt strangely drawn to this little girl who seemed so to want the privacy of a home life.  She spoke to her very gently.  “Yes, Vivian, we all go to school,—­though I don’t go to a regular school, do you?”

“No, I don’t.  Mother and Cora say they’ll teach me every day, while we’re on the road, but they never get time.  And I have to practise a great deal.”

Marjorie looked around for a piano, and then suddenly realized that Vivian meant she must practise her gymnastic exercises.

“Come, Miss Marjorie, we must be going,” said Pompton, who felt moved himself by the pathetic face of the little circus girl.

“Well, perhaps you’d better go now,” said Cora, who had received imperative glances from her mother.  “But we’ve enjoyed seeing you, and we thank you for your call.”

Mademoiselle Cora had very polite manners, but she seemed to be under the rule of her mother, and it was with evident reluctance that she bade the visitors good-bye.

“I’ll give you my picture,” said Vivian to Marjorie, as they parted, “because I want you to remember me.  I would like to have your picture, but Mother won’t let me have little girls’ photographs.  She thinks it makes me feel envious to see pictures of little home-girls.”

“Well, I’ll give you something to remember me by,” said Marjorie, impulsively, and she took from her neck a string of blue beads, and clasped it round Vivian’s throat.

“Oh, thank you,” said Vivian, with sparkling eyes.  “I shall wear them always, and love them because you gave them to me.  Good-bye, dear, dear little home-girl!”

The tears came into Marjorie’s eyes at the tremor in Vivian’s voice, and she kissed her affectionately, and then bidding good-bye to Mademoiselle Cora they followed Pompton out of the tent.

They were all rather silent as they trudged along to the trolley-car, and then Kitty said slowly, “Isn’t it awful to be like that?  I suppose she never has any home-life at all.”

“Of course she hasn’t, Miss Kitty, as she has no home,” said Pompton; “it’s wicked to put a child like that in a circus, it certainly is!  She’s a sweet little girl, and her sister is a fine young lady, too.”