nobody else seemed to appreciate. Especially Mabel. She
seemed to be enjoying herself at the other side of the table, laughing
at the stories that Major Capstan was telling her. From the Major's
expression, Luke diagnosed that the stories were not quite--well, not
exactly--oh, you know. Would it be Doom Dagshaw or Major Capstan? Oh,
what was he thinking of?

Why had he not been put next to Jona? Why did the girl on his right,
whom he had never met before, persist in addressing him as Funnyface?
Why is a mouse when it spins? The world was full of conundrums.

In the garden after lunch, Jona came straight up to him.

"We are going to play games," she said.

"What games?"

"Well, this morning we played leap-frog down the stairs. That was a
little idea of Bill's."

Luke had noticed at lunch that two of the guests wore sticking-plaster
on their noses. This explained it.

"I don't think I should like playing leap-frog," he said. "I sometimes
play at boats with Dot."

"We'll play at hide-and-seek," said Jona. "You and I will hide
together. Come along."

They hid in the cool dusk of the tool-shed. Jona sat on the
wheelbarrow and talked, and talked, and talked.

At the end of half-an-hour, Luke had failed to ask her what she had
meant by certain things on the day that she had called at his office.
He made rather a specialty of not being able to say anything that he
particularly wanted to say.

He said: "It's funny they've not found us yet."

"Not so very funny," said Jona. "You see, I forgot to tell any of them
that we were going to play this game. Here's one of the gardeners
coming. Damn. I suppose we'd better join the rest of the crowd."

It was not until Mabel and Luke were leaving that Luke got a chance of
another word with Jona.

"We're leaving for town to-morrow," said Jona. "You'll write and tell
me everything that's in your old head, won't you?"

Luke felt that he ought not to write. Mabel would not like it. It
would be wrong.

"Thanks," he said, "we so seldom have any postage stamps in the house.
And I've lost my Onoto pen, and I sprained my wrist falling off my
bicycle."

"Oh, do write, Lukie dear." She held out her hand to him.

"Good-by," he said, and ran down the steps. At the bottom of the steps
stood the cab, an interesting antique, which was to convey Mabel home.
Mabel and Major Capstan were waiting near the door.

"You only took about twenty minutes saying good-by to Lady Tyburn,"
said