“Oh, darlin’, what a grand thing!” cried Jane, lifting Gwendolyn to stand on the rounding seat of a white-and-gold chair (a position at other times strictly forbidden).  “And what a pile of money it must’ve cost!  Why, it’s as natural as the big one in the Park!”

The music and the horses appealed.  Other considerations moved temporarily into the background as Gwendolyn watched and listened.

Thomas broke the string of the smaller package.  “This is the Madam’s present,” he declared.  “And I’ll warrant it’s a beauty!”

It proved a surprise.  All paper shorn away, there stood revealed a green cabbage, topped by something fluffy and hairy and snow-white.  This was a rabbit’s head.  And when Thomas had turned a key in the base of the cabbage, the rabbit gave a sudden hop, lifted a pair of long ears, munched at a bit of cabbage-leaf, turned his pink nose, now to the right, now to the left, and rolled two amber eyes.

“And look!  Look!” shouted Jane “The eyes light up” For each was glowing as yellowly as the tiny electric bulbs on either side of Gwendolyn’s dressing-table.

“Now what more could a little lady want!” exclaimed Thomas.  “It’s as wonderful, I say, as a wax figger.”

The rabbit, with a sharp click of farewell, popped back into the cabbage.  Gwendolyn got down from the chair.

“It is nice,” she conceded.  “And I’m going to ask fath-er and moth-er to come up and see it.”

Neither Thomas nor Jane answered.  But again he eyed the nurse, this time flashing a silent warning.  After which she began to exclaim excitedly over the rabbit, while he wound up the merry-go-round.  Then the ruby seats and the Arabs careened in a circle, the music played, the rabbit chewed and wriggled and rolled his luminous eyes.

An interruption came in the shape of a ring at the telephone, which stood on the small table at the head of Gwendolyn’s bed.  Jane answered the summons, and received the message,—­a brief one.  It worked, however, a noticeable change.  For when Jane turned round her face was sullen.

Gwendolyn remarked the scowls.  Also the fact that the moment Jane made Thomas her confidant—­in an undertone—­he showed plain signs of being annoyed.  Gwendolyn saw the merry-go-round—­cabbage and all—­disappear into the large, round box without a trace of regret.  So much ill-feeling on the part of nurse and man-servant undoubtedly meant that something of a decidedly pleasant nature was about to happen to herself.

It was a usual—­almost a daily—­occurrence for her to visit the region of the grown-ups at the dinner-hour.  On such occasions she saw one, though more often both, of her parents—­as well as a varying number of guests.  And the privilege was one held dear.

She coveted a dearer.  And her eyes roved to the larger of her two tables, where stood the tall lamp.  There she ate all her meals, in the condescending company of Miss Royle.  What if the telephone message meant that henceforth she was to eat downstairs?