n or a man with a mouth
that shuts up like a crack in a plate, the way theirs do, it takes more
than Scriptur' texts from that mouth to make me believe it won't bite
when it has the chance. Safe! poor Little Frank may be safe enough at
Leatherhead, but I'll bet she's miserable. WHAT made her go there?"

"Because she had no other place to go, I suppose," I said. "And
there, among her relatives, she thought she would be free from our
persecution."

"There's some things worse than persecution," Hephzy declared; "and,
so far as that goes, there are different kinds of persecution. But what
makes those Crippses willin' to take her in and look after her is what
_I_ can't understand. They MAY be generous and forgivin' and kind, but,
if they are, then I miss my guess. The whole business is awful queer.
Tell me all about your talk with Doctor Bayliss, Hosy. What did he say?
And how did he look when he said it?"

I told her, repeating our conversation word for word, as near as I could
remember it. She listened intently and when I had finished there was an
odd expression on her face.

"Humph!" she exclaimed. "He seemed surprised to think you weren't goin'
to Leatherhead, you say?"

"Yes. At least I thought he was surprised. He knew I had chased her from
Mayberry to Paris and was there at the hotel trying to learn from him
where she was. And he knows you are her aunt. I suppose he thought it
strange that we were not going to follow her any further."

"Maybe so... maybe so. But why did he call you a--what was it?--a silly
donkey?"

"Because I am one, I imagine," I answered, bitterly. "It's my natural
state. I was born one."

"Humph! Well, 'twould take more than that boy's word to make me believe
it. No there's something!--I wish I could see that young fellow myself.
He's at the Continental Hotel, you say?"

"Yes; but he leaves to-morrow. There, Hephzy, that's enough. Don't talk
about it. Change the subject. I am ready to go back to England--yes,
or America either, whenever you say the word. The sooner the better for
me."

Hephzy obediently changed the subject and we decided to leave Paris the
following afternoon. We would go back to the rectory, of course, and
leave there for home as soon as the necessary arrangements could be
made. Hephzy agreed to everything, she offered no objections, in fact
it seemed to me that she was paying very little attention. Her lack of
interest--yes, and apparent lack of sympathy, for I knew