ld have known if Cicely had been driven to the station,
which it was fairly obvious she had not been. He also had Porter the
butler up, more because Porter was always had up if anything went wrong
in the house than because he could be expected to throw any light on
what had happened. And when the groom came back from Mountfield with
Dick's note to Mrs. Clinton, late as it was, he had _him_ up, and sent
him down again to spread his news and his suspicions busily, although he
had been threatened with instant dismissal if he said a word to anybody.

Having thus satisfied himself of what he knew already, that Cicely had
walked to the station and had taken no luggage with her, and having
opened up the necessary channels of information, so that outdoor and
indoor servants alike now knew that Cicely had run away and that her
father was prepared, as the phrase went, to raise Cain about it, the
Squire went up to bed, and breaking his usual healthy custom of going to
sleep immediately he laid his head on his pillow, rated Mrs. Clinton
soundly for not noticing what was going on under her very nose. "I can't
look after everything in the house and out of it too," he ended up. "I
shall be expected to see that the twins change their stockings when they
get their feet wet, next. Good-night, Nina. God bless you."

So, to return to the twins; when the schoolroom maid came to awaken them
in the morning and found them, as was usual, nearly dressed, they
learned, for the first time, what had been happening while they had
slept, all unconscious.

"Why can't you call us in proper time, Hannah?" said Joan, as she came
in. "We told you we wanted our hot water at half-past three, and it has
just struck seven. You'll have to go if you can't get up in time."

Hannah deposited a tray containing two large cups of tea and some
generous slices of bread and butter on a table and said importantly,
"It's no time to joke now, Miss Joan. There's Miss Clinton missing, and
most of us kep' awake half the night wondering what's come of her."

Hannah had not before succeeded in making an impression upon her young
mistresses, but she succeeded now. Joan and Nancy stared at her with
open eyes, and gave her time to heighten her effects as they redounded
to her own importance.

"But I can't stop talking now, miss," she said. "I'll just get your 'ot
water and then I must go and 'elp. Here I stop wasting me time, and
don't know that something hadn't 'appened and