that she should let him understand clearly that she did
not approve of his conduct, and would be "his friend," but
nothing more.

But why had they not thought of deciding on an hour when it would
be darker? she kept saying to herself: there would be no danger
of being seen then; she could slip out of the house without any
difficulty, and run through the paddocks under cover of the
kindly dusk; whereas if it was light, and she tried to creep away,
at least two or three of the children would fly after her and
offer generously to "come too."

At last, too afraid to go in the light, and unwilling for Aldith
to reproach her for not going at all, she did in her excitement
and desperation a thing so questionable that for long after she
could not think of it without horror.

"Dear Mr. Courtney," she wrote, sitting down at her dressing-table,
and scribbling away hurriedly in pencil:

"It would be horrid going for the walk so early. Let us go later,
when it is quite dark. It will be EVER so much nicer, for no one
will be able to see us. And let us meet at the end of the paddocks
where the bush grows thickly, it will be more private. I am writing
to Aldith to tell her to go at that time, she will tell Mr. Graham.

Yours sincerely,
M. Woolcot.

"P.S.--I must ask you, please, not to kiss me. I should be very
angry indeed if you did. I don't like kissing at all."

She wrote the last paragraph in a nervous hurry for she had a dread
that he might fulfil his promise, if she did not forbid him as soon
as they met. Then she slipped it into an envelope and addressed it
to A. Courtney, Esq., it never having even occurred to her for a
moment that there was anything at all strange or unconventional in
a young girl making such a point that the meeting should be in the
dark.

Next she wrote a few lines of explanation to Aldith, and told her
to be sure to be in the paddock by half-past eight, and she (Meg)
would slip out when the children were going to bed and unlikely
to notice.

And then she went out into the garden to find messengers for
her two notes. Little Flossie Courtney had been spending the
afternoon with Nellie, and Meg called her back from the gate
just as she was going home, and, unseen by the children, entrusted
the note to her.

"'Give it to your brother Andrew the minute he comes from school,"
she whispered, popping a big chocolate at the same time into
the little girl's mouth. Bunty was next bribed,