One day, when Heartsease was eight years old, she went out for a walk with her two sisters, and they met a vagabond in dark, tattered cloak who was playing a hurdy-gurdy, which is a thing like a big violin, with strings, and keys, and a handle at the end of it which you turn. The vagabond looked very poor and miserable, and he took off his cap and asked for a few pence, for he had not a penny to buy bread with.
Now Elsa and Elfrida, Heartsease's sisters, were very proud. They scowled at the vagabond, and told him to go about his business quickly, or else they would send for the soldiers and have him locked up in gaol. But Heartsease was sorry for him and said: "I cannot give you any money, because I have not got any, but take this: perhaps it will make you happy, because I love it very much, and talk to it when I am alone." And she took her favourite old doll which she always carried about with her, and gave it to him. It was not a pretty doll, and she had played with it so much that its clothes were frayed and torn; but it had a beautiful crown made of gold paper, and a necklace of large blue beads. And Heartsease loved it above all things, and it was her companion; because Elsa and Elfrida never let her play with them, for they said she was too small.
As soon as she had done this Elsa and Elfrida burst out laughing.
"Fancy giving a beggar a doll!" they said. "We should like to know what he can do with it!"
"Thank you kindly, little Princess," said the vagabond. "I shall never forget your kindness."
"A lot of good a beggar's kindness will do her," said Elsa.
"Perhaps he will bring her a bridegroom," said Elfrida.
"Perhaps he will wed her himself," said Elsa, and they both laughed.
"Nobody else will, for sure," said Elfrida.
The vagabond then turned to the two sisters and said—