or what might perhaps be better,
I could get a lodging at the farmhouse down the road. I am told that
they put travellers up sometimes."

Miss Du Prel hurried off, evidently chilled by Mrs. Fullerton's freezing
courtesy. Hadria, disregarding her mother's glance of admonition,
accompanied the visitor to the farm of Craw Gill, having first given
directions to old Maggie to put together a few things that Miss Du Prel
would require for the night. Hadria's popularity at the farm, secured
her new friend a welcome. Mrs. McEwen was a fine example of the best
type of Scottish character; warm of heart, honest of purpose, and full
of a certain unconscious poetry, and a dignity that lingers still in
districts where the railway whistle is not too often heard. Miss Du Prel
seemed to nestle up to the good woman, as a child to its mother after
some scaring adventure. Mrs. McEwen was recommending a hot water-bottle
and gruel in case of a chill, when Hadria wended her way homeward to
brave her mother's wrath.

CHAPTER VI.

"I cannot make you realize that you are an ignorant girl who knows
nothing of the world, and that it is necessary you should accept my
experience, and condescend to be guided by my wishes. You put me in a
most unpleasant position this afternoon, forcing me to receive a person
whom I have never been introduced to, or heard of----"

"Valeria Du Prel has been heard of throughout the English-speaking
world," said Hadria rhetorically.

"So much the worse," retorted Mrs. Fullerton. "No nicely brought up
woman is ever heard of outside her own circle."

Hadria recalled a similar sentiment among the ancient Greeks, and
thought how hard an old idea dies.

"She might have been some awful person, some unprincipled adventuress,
and that I believe is what she is. What was she prowling about the back
of our house for, I should like to know?"

"I suspect she wanted to steal chickens or something," Hadria was goaded
into suggesting, and the interview ended painfully.

When Hadria went to Craw Gill, next morning, to enquire for Miss Du
Prel, Mrs. McEwen said that the visitor had breakfasted in bed. The
farmer's wife also informed Miss Fullerton that the lady had decided to
stay on at Craw Gill, for some time. She had been looking out for a
retreat of the kind.

"She seems a nice-like body," said Mrs. McEwen, "and I see no objection
to the arrangement."

Hadria's heart beat faster. Could it be possible that Valeria