to a few choking sobs. Oh, why
was she so fearfully lonely; why was this horrid Ardshiel invented; why
were her sisters taken from her, and her brothers, as she called the
Precious Stones? Of course she still had Dumpy Dad, and he was a host
in himself. She brushed violently away some fast-flowing tears, and
then dashed into the hall. As a rule the hall was a very lively place.
If it was at all cold weather there was a great fire in the ingle-nook,
and a girl was sure to be found in the hall playing on the grand piano
or on the beautiful organ, or singing in her sweet voice; but now all
was deadly silence. Even the dogs, Curfew and Tocsin, were nowhere to
be seen. There was no Magsie to talk to. Magsie had gone over to the
enemy.

Hollyhock ran up to her own room, for each Flower Girl had a room to
herself in the great house. She brushed back her jet-black hair; she
tidied her little blouse as well as she could, and even tied a crimson
ribbon on one side of her hair; and then, feeling that she looked at
least a little bewitching, and that Ardshiel mattered nothing at all to
her, and that if her sisters chose to be fools--well, let them be
fools, she flew down to her father's study.

Now this was the hour when George Lennox devoted himself, as a rule, to
his accounts; this was the hour when, formerly, Mrs Constable came over
to fetch the children for their lessons. But there was no sign of Mrs
Constable coming to-day, and Dumpy Dad only raised his head, glanced at
his miserable child, and said sharply, 'I can't be interrupted now,
Hollyhock. You'd better go out and play in the garden.'

'But I 've no one to play with,' said Hollyhock.

'You must leave me, my dear child. I shall be particularly busy for
the next couple of hours. In the afternoon we can go for a ride
together. It's rather cold to row on the lake to-day. Now go,
Hollyhock. You are interrupting me.'

'Dumpy Dad!' faltered Hollyhock, her usually happy voice quavering with
sadness.

Lennox took not the slightest notice, but went on with his accounts.

'This is unbearable,' thought Hollyhock. 'If dad chooses to spend his
mornings over horrid arithmetic instead of looking after me, when I 've
given up so much for his sake, I'll just run away, that I will; but as
to going to Ardshiel, to be crowed over by Magsie, catch _me_!'

Hollyhock pulled the crimson bow out of her dark hair, let the said
hair blow wildly in the breeze, stuck on her