w moments, as softly as he had crept up.

When Mrs. Anketell came down ten minutes later, saying, "I wish Paul had
come, he will be late for dinner," she found him coiled up in the big
arm-chair with a book on his knee, and apparently absorbed in the story.
He was so deeply absorbed in fact that he did not look up when she spoke,
not, indeed, until she exclaimed, "Oh, Paul, dear, then you are back.
Have you been here long? I did not know you were in the house, and I was
quite anxious about you."

Then he looked up at her with an abstracted air, as though his mind was
still so deep in the story that it was closed to everything, and he could
hardly hear or take in what she was saying. "No-o not very long," he
answered vaguely, and to hide his eyes, which could not meet his mother's,
he dropped them on to the pages again.

"Did you hurry back to go on with your book?" asked his mother, standing
by him, and looking over his shoulder. "I am glad you find it so
interesting. Father was afraid you did not care for it, as you never
looked at it. But why do you hold it upside down, dear?"

Paul coloured hotly, and held his head lower to hide it. "To--to--the
picture looks so funny this way," he said lamely, and then, to his great
relief, the maid said dinner was ready, and he escaped any further
embarrassment for the moment. But only for the moment.

CHAPTER VII.

A TROUBLESOME PAIR OF BOOTS.

Muggridge had told him to bring his boots out to the boot-house, when he
could manage to get them there without any one seeing him, that he might
clean them for him, and nobody be the wiser. So Paul waited anxiously for
the opportunity. He knew it must be done soon, as his mother would miss
the boots and make inquiries about them, for he had only the one pair of
strong everyday boots now besides his best ones, as the others had been
almost spoilt by his first adventure in the morass, and had been sent away
to the shoemaker's.

As soon as dinner was finished his troubles began again.

"I am going to walk to Four Bridges this afternoon," said Mr. Anketell;
"who will go with me? We will have tea there, and walk home in the
evening."

Stella and Michael jumped with delight. They enjoyed this sort of
excursion more than anything that could be offered them; and, as a rule,
Paul enjoyed it even more than they. But to-day he did not express his
usual pleasure, and sat looking red and embarrassed when his father looked