"Once upon a time there was a great dragon with seven heads, and he ate seven princesses every day for dinner. . . ."
"That's better," said the boy, encouragingly, as he settled himself to listen.
The old hawker resumed his walk.
"They haven't made a very good job of him, after all," he remarked aloud, apparently to the terrier. "But I expect that sort is incurable."
Was it a flicker of sunlight? Or did the black terrier really wink?
CHAPTER VIII
FIONA FINDS HER TREASURE
And Fiona?
Fiona sat on the hearthrug in the bookroom, and told her father the whole story from beginning to end, as it has been told here. And sometimes he asked a question, and sometimes he said, "Yes, that would be so," and sometimes he stroked her hair and said nothing. And when she had ended, he said, "So you never found your own treasure after all, Fiona?"
She said, "I suppose I can have it now, if I go back."