satisfied if you don't interfere."

She ran downstairs and went gaily into the dining-room.

"So I hear you are going to take us all to the Landslip, and have
tea at the Cottage, Mrs. Henchman," she said, sitting down beside her
affectionately; "and Denys has asked Cecil Greyburne to go too, and
he and I are going to cycle instead of walk. Denys said you would not
like it, but I knew you would not mind."

And Mrs. Henchman answered as Gertrude had meant she should.

"Not at all, my dear! I want you to enjoy yourself while you are
here."

"Oh, I am!" answered Gertrude, very heartily and very truthfully. She
cast a little triumphant look at Denys. She was certainly enjoying
herself immensely. They had been at Whitecliff the larger half of a
week already, and Cecil Greyburne, an old school friend of Charlie's,
had dropped in to call on Mrs. Henchman the first evening, and since
then he had called in or met the girls constantly. Mrs. Henchman had
not been very well since their arrival, and Audrey was very engrossed
with the end-of-term examinations, and Gertrude found it convenient
to assume that Denys ought to be entertaining her future relatives
or writing to Charlie; she, therefore, monopolised Cecil to such an
extent, that every day it happened as it had happened that morning:
Denys sat alone on the beach or wandered about on the cliff, and
Gertrude, with a lightly uttered "Oh, Denys is busy somewhere," had
gone cycling or rowing or primrose hunting with Cecil.

Mrs. Henchman had ordered her donkey-chair for three o'clock, and
shortly before that hour Gertrude came bustling in from the garden.

She found Denys in the hall collecting cushions and shawls, for though
the April sun was unusually warm there was a sharp touch in the wind.

"I say, Denys!" she exclaimed. "I have borrowed your machine--I have
bent my pedal somehow, and you won't want yours."

CHAPTER V.

A WILD-GOOSE CHASE.

Donkeys are proverbially obstinate animals, and Mrs. Henchman's this
afternoon proved no exception to the rule. He had evidently made up
his mind that the road to the Landslip was not a congenial one. In
vain the boy who drove him cheered him onwards, in vain Denys tugged
at his bridle, in vain Audrey walked in front holding out an inviting
thistle. At length Mrs. Henchman got flurried and nervous.

"Boy!" she called, "what is your name?"

The boy turned a smiling round face, "Billy Burr, ma'am!"

"Billy Burr! if yo