n rests upon that. He is a man incapable of the caddish
villainy you impute. Why he could not repair the car, I cannot say. I
think," with a smile, "that he does not know quite as much about cars as
he thinks he does. But he did his best, I know that! When we found his
efforts useless we took the only course possible and made at once for
the canoe. We had to steal it, you remember, but the doctor showed no
faltering in that. He was also prepared to shoot the dog. And you have
my word for it that he made no attempt to swamp the canoe or to
otherwise complicate matters. I arrived at Mrs. Burton's by ten minutes
past nine. She was delighted to see me. Dr. Callandar walked over to the
station and sent telegrams to Aunt Amy and Mrs. Sykes. He returned to
Coombe upon the morning train. I remained with Mrs. Burton and came back
in time for school on the milk train Monday morning. That is the whole
story of the adventure and, to be frank, I enjoyed it immensely."

The minister shook his head, but he could say no more. His attitude had
not changed, yet he felt a sense of shame before the straightforward
honesty of Esther's outlook. She had no sense of the evil of the world.
That very fact seemed to make the world less evil.

"When will Mrs. Coombe be back?" he asked abruptly.

Immediately the girl's frank look clouded. "I do not know," she said.
"She hardly ever tells me when she is returning. She may be at home any
day now. You know how impulsively she acts."

"Yes--just so." The minister's manner was absent. "The fact is I wish
very much to speak with your mother regarding a certain matter. Not the
matter we have been discussing, we will say no more of that, but a
matter of great importance to--er--to me. The importance is such indeed
that I doubt if I am justified in delaying longer if you have no idea of
when I may expect to see her."

Had Esther been noticing she must have remarked the unusual agitation of
his manner, but Esther was not noticing.

"Is it anything you could discuss with me?" she asked innocently.
"Mother cares less and less for business. Unless it is something quite
private she will probably turn it over to me in any case."

"But this is not--er--a matter of business. Not exactly. Not a business
matter at all, in fact. It is a matter which--"

"Oh, there you are!" Miss Annabel's voice was breathless but gratified
and free from the faintest suspicion of having arrived, as usual, at
exactly the wrong m