the boot-boy must look for Joan," said Mother,
opening the gate.

The dining-room looked very secure and homelike, with its big window
and its cheerful table spread for lunch. Joyce's place faced the
window, so that she could see the lawn and the hedge bounding the
kitchen garden; and when Mother had served her with food, she was
left alone to eat it. Presently the gardener and the boot-boy passed
the window, each carrying a hedge-stake and looking war-like. There
reached her a murmur of voices; the gardener was mumbling something
about tramps.

"Oh, I don't think so," replied Mother's voice.

Mother came in presently and sat down, but did not eat anything.
Joyce asked her why.

"Oh, I shall have some lunch when Joan comes," answered Mother. "I
shan't be hungry till then. Will you have some more, my pet?"

When Joyce had finished, they went out again to the wood to meet Joan
when she was brought back in custody. Mother walked quite slowly,
looking all the time as if she would like to run. Joyce held her hand
and sometimes glanced up at her face, so full of wonder and a sort of
resentful doubt, as though circumstances were playing an unmannerly
trick on her. At the gate they came across the boot-boy.

"I bin all acrost that way," said the boot-boy, pointing with his
stumpy black forefinger, "and then acrost that way, an' Mister Jenks"
Jenks was the gardener "'e've gone about in rings, 'e 'ave. And there
ain't no sign nor token, mum, not a sign there ain't."

From behind him sounded the voice of the gardener, thrashing among
the trees. "Miss Joan!" he roared. "Hi! Miss Jo-an! You're
a-frightin' your Ma proper. Where are ye, then?"

"She must be hiding," said Mother. "You must go on looking, Walter.
You must go on looking till you find her."

"Yes'm," said Walter. "If's she's in there us'll find her, soon or
late."

He ran off, and presently his voice was joined to Jenks's, calling
Joan calling, calling, and getting no answer.

Mother took Joyce's hand again.

"Come," she said. "We'll walk round by the path, and you must tell me
again how it all happened. Did you really see something when Joan
told you to look?"

"I expect I didn't," replied Joyce, dolefully. "But Joan's always
saying there's a fairy or something in the shadows, and I always
think I see them for a moment."

"It couldn't have been a live woman or a man that you saw?"

"Oh, no!" Joyce was positive of that. Mother's hand tightened on hers