She offered Dotty paper dolls enough to people a colony; but Miss Dimple was as firm as a rock, now her face was once set towards home.

Lina turned on her heel, and slowly walked away.

Dotty called after her:-- "There, Lina, now you've told an awful story! You said you'd go to my house, and tell my mother I'd run away again; and now you don't dare go; so you've told an awful wicked story." With this parting thrust at her tormentor, Dotty turned again to the misery of her own thoughts.

Her home was already in sight; but the uncertainty as to her reception there made her little feet falter in their course.

Her head sank lower and lower, till her chin snuggled into the hollow of her neck, and her eyes peered out keenly from under her hat, to make sure no one was watching.