"Wish I had dolly here now; want to luf her this way," continued the little prattler, smoothing Flaxie's cheek with her tiny hand.
"No, no, you mustn't love my doll in that way; it isn't the way to love dolls. You mustn't touch her at all; you mustn't go anywhere near her, Kittyleen Garland," exclaimed Flaxie, growing alarmed.
She had more treasures of value, perhaps, than any other little girl in Rosewood, and was always afraid of their being injured. Indeed, she was too anxiously careful of some of them, and it was partly for this reason that her mother had promised to show Kittyleen the wax doll. Of all Flaxie's possessions this was the very chief, and she loved the pretty image with as much of a mother's love as a little girl is able to feel, always calling her "my only child" in forgetfulness of all her other dolls, black, white, and gray. The "Princess Aurora Arozarena," as she was called, was as large as a live baby six months old. Flaxie had owned her for two years, keeping her mostly in close confinement in her mother's cabinet, and never allowing little sister Ethel anything more than a tantalizing glimpse of her majesty's lustrous robes. This august being was dressed in fine silk, with gloves and sash to match, and always when she mounted the throne, and sometimes when she didn't, she wore a crown upon her regal head. Her throne, I may add, was a round cricket, dotted with brass nails. You will see at once that it would be no light trial to have this adorable doll breathed upon by such a little gypsy as Kittyleen.
"O mamma," pleaded Flaxie next morning, "please hold her tight when you show"—and then, as Kittyleen skipped into the room she added, "Hold the w-a-x d-o-l-l tight when you show it!"
"I heard," said Kittyleen. "Diddle o-k-p-g! I heard!"
Mrs. Gray and Flaxie both laughed; but the terrible child added, dancing up and down, "See dolly now! me velly much obliged!" "Me velly much obliged" was her way of saying "if you please," and Flaxie often remarked upon it as "very cunning"; but she saw nothing cunning in it now, and frowned severely as Mrs. Gray led the way up-stairs to her own chamber, unlocked the cabinet, and took out the much-desired, crowned, and glittering Aurora Arozarena.
"Kittyleen may look at it, but she is not to touch it. Ethel never has touched it. And when you hear the breakfast bell, Mary, you may put the doll back in the cabinet, and that will be the last of it; so try not to look so wretched."
"Oh! oh! oh!" cried Kittyleen, too full of delight to do anything but scream. "Open eyes! shut eyes! Oh! oh! oh!"
She did not offer to touch the shining lady; and this grand exhibition would have been the last of it if Flaxie had not somehow, in her anxiety and haste, forgotten to turn the key on the royal prisoner when she put her back in the cabinet.