The severe governesses--English and German--and her adorable, beautiful mother, descending upon the schoolroom like a fairy of light, always gay and sweet and loving.

And then of that journey to a far country, where she saw an old, old, dying gentleman in a royal palace, who kissed her, and told her she would grow as beautiful as her grandmother with the red, red hair.

And there in the palace was Mimo, so handsome and kind in his glittering aide-de-camp's uniform, who after that often came to the gloomy castle, and, with the fairy mother, to the schoolroom.

Ah! those days were happy days! How they three had shrieked with laughter and played hide-and-seek in the long galleries! And then the blank, hideous moment when the angel fairy had gone, and the stern father cursed and swore, and Uncle Francis' face looked like a vengeful fiend's.

And then a day when she got word to meet her mother in the park of the castle.