"It will be impossible," said she.

"And after to-morrow we shall not be able to talk to each other any more," exclaimed the little girl. "Oh, how sad!"

"Never mind, even if we cannot talk we can remain good friends. The deepest friendship is often the quietest."

"Then we can be very great friends indeed," said the little girl with much affection. "I am so glad, dear!"

"I am going out to-morrow afternoon to see the pantomime, but I shall come here as early as I can," she added as she went away. "Don't you be late."

"No, I won't," answered the Marionette.

"Remember!"

"Yes, I'll remember."

"_How_ will you remember?"

"I'll tie a knot in my hair, so that when I brush it I shall feel that there is something to recollect."

"That's a good idea," said the little girl, and ran away in content.

CHAPTER IX

The next evening, as soon as the little girl came in, she went to their meeting-place by the Noah's Ark.

But the little Marionette was not to be found.

"This is too bad of her!" said the little girl. "Our last time! And after she has promised not to be late!"

Tears rose to her eyes.

"I am very much disappointed," said she as she walked up and down the shop looking for her friend.

"I shall never find her.... Why, _there_ she is!" she exclaimed suddenly.

And she hurried up to the little Marionette, who, half-concealed by a big Drum, lay on the ground beside a Puzzle.

"You are not very kind," remarked the little girl reproachfully. "I asked you to be early, and you never came at all."

"I am very sorry," answered the little Marionette in a tired voice.

Then she sat up, and the little girl saw with much sorrow and surprise that she was quite disfigured. Her nose was broken, her eyes were crooked, and her face was quite knocked about. All the little girl's annoyance vanished, and her heart was full of pity.

"Oh, you poor dear little dolly!" she cried; "what _has_ happened to you?"

"I have hurt myself," was the answer. "I tripped up over this Puzzle."

"I am sorry. Are you very badly hurt?" asked her little friend with pity.

"Never mind me. I promised to tell you one more story, and I shall do so," answered the little Marionette.

She spoke very sadly, and the little girl picked her up and kissed her.

"Would you not like to put off telling me a story to-day?" she asked.

"No. I should like to do so," the Marionette answered, "for it is our last meeting. Put me back on the counter and I will tell it to you."

"Shall I put you back where I found you?"

"No, take me back to our old place. I am tired of this Puzzle."

So the little girl took her to the Noah's Ark, and placed her with her back to it.

"What is your story about, dear?" the little girl asked, drawing her chair close to the counter, and bending her head close to the little Marionette, the better to hear her small voice--weaker and more tiny that evening than usual.

"About a little Marionette like myself, whose best and dearest friend left her and thought she didn't mind. And all the while she minded so very much! More than she knew how to say!"

"Poor little Marionette!" said Molly.

"It _was_ sad, for it was only a mistake, wasn't it?" said the little Marionette lady with a sigh. "But you shall hear all about it. Listen whilst I tell you the story of: 'The Last Performance.'"

THE LAST PERFORMANCE

The two little Marionette dolls had just finished their dance before an admiring throng of Toys, and the curtain had, that moment, fallen upon their last performance.

"So now," sighed the little lady Marionette to her partner; "so now the play is over. We shall never act together again. I heard the woman who owned the shop say that she was going to separate us, and sell us as ordinary Toys. She said there was so little demand for Marionettes nowadays.... But you heard that as well as I, didn't you?"

"Yes, I heard," he answered. "And more, too. She said she was going to send me away with some other Toys to a Christmas-tree. So that it will be good-bye for a long while."

The little lady Marionette patted the paniers of her pretty brocade dress and remained silent.

"You don't mind that, do you?" her partner said. "I thought you wouldn't."

"I do mind," she answered at last.

"Yes; very much I am sure," he said.

"You hurt my feelings," she replied.

"I wouldn't do that for the whole world--not for ten worlds," he answered.