like Aunt Genevieve,
only more kind.

"Let's show the ring to Miss Betty! May we, Mr. Whittredge?" asked Belle.

Allan did not appear enthusiastic over the suggestion, but he did not
refuse, and followed the children at a distance as they raced across the
street.

"There's the detective now," cried Jack, at the gate.

"Where?" the others asked breathlessly.

"On the porch with Miss Betty."

Sure enough, partially shielded from view by the vines, in one of Miss
Betty's comfortable chairs, sat the stranger.

"Why--" began Rosalind, stopping short, "it looks like--Why, Dr.
Hollingsworth! I didn't know you were here!"

At the same moment the gentleman started up, exclaiming, "Well, Rosalind,
they said you were out of town. I am very glad to see you," and they met
and clasped hands like warm friends.

"Children!" cried Rosalind, turning to her companions, "this is our
president, Dr. Hollingsworth."

"And these are the young people who took my photograph yesterday," Dr.
Hollingsworth observed gravely. There was a twinkle in his eye, however.

By this time Mr. Whittredge had arrived on the scene and was introduced.

"So this is the detective," he said.

The culprits looked at each other and meditated flight, but changed their
minds when Dr. Hollingsworth shook hands with them, and said he knew how
it was to have a new camera and want to take everything in sight, and that
he really felt complimented.

Belle thought she wouldn't have minded, except for the detective part of
it, over which Mr. Whittredge made so much fun.

The ring was exhibited, and the whole matter made clear after a while, and
Dr. Hollingsworth said he was glad to have figured in any capacity in such
an interesting occurrence.

"And how in the world did it get in the spinet?" asked Miss Betty. "I
believe Cousin Thomas put it there himself, as a practical joke."

Miss Betty might have been holding a reception that morning, so full of
people did her small porch appear, and so continuous was the hum of
voices.

Dr. Hollingsworth, it seemed, had been in the habit of visiting in
Friendship twenty years ago, and finding himself in the vicinity, he had
made it convenient to call upon his old friends; but, as he said, things
had been rather against him. His college friend, the Presbyterian
minister, was away on his vacation, Miss Bishop out of town for the day,
and Rosalind, he did not know where.

"And so there was nothing for me to do but loa