erhaps more
besides,"--with a cryptic nod.

"Now, what do you mean by that?"

"Wait patiently, my child, and you'll see."

"I believe the Sark air is affecting your--whatever you've got inside
that giddy head of yours."

"Of course it is. That's what I came for, and to keep you out of
mischief, you infantile law-breaker."

XI

Graeme's two minutes were each set with considerably more than the
regulation sixty seconds--diamond seconds of glowing anticipation,
every one of them. And, to his credit, be it recorded that he allotted
several of them to the invocation of most fervent blessings on Miss
Penny, who, at the moment, was vigorously disclaiming any pretension
thereto.

But, quite soon enough for his hosts, as he considered them,--his
guests, according to Miss Penny,--he appeared at the cottage, bodily
and mentally prepared for the feast, and showing both in manner and
attire due sense of the honour conferred upon him.

It was a festive, and for one of them at all events, a
never-to-be-forgotten meal. The strong Sark air had got into all their
heads, and whatever prudish notions might have been working in
Margaret, she had bidden them to heel and took her pleasure as it
came.

Her mood, however, for the moment was receptive rather than
expressive. Miss Penny and Graeme still did most of the talking, and
Margaret sat and listened and laughed, not a little astonished at
finding herself in that galley.

"What is the penalty for aiding and abetting a criminal in an evasion
of the law, Mr. Graeme?" chirped Miss Penny one time, and took
Margaret's energetic below-table expostulation without a wince.

"It would depend, I should say, on the particular dye of criminal.
What has your friend been up to, Miss Penny? Is he a particularly
black specimen?"

"In the first place he's a she, and in the next place her complexion
has a decided tendency towards blonde. As to dye--I am in a position
to state on oath that she does not."

For a moment he was mystified, then his eye fell on Margaret's face,
full of glorious confusion at this base betrayal by her bosom friend.

"The Sark air does get into people's heads like that at times," he
said diplomatically. "It's just in the first few days. But you soon
get used to it. I felt just the same myself--losing faith in things
and thinking ill of my friends, and so on. You'll be quite all right
in a day or two, Miss Penny,"--with a touch of sympathetic
commiseration in h