nd
through a beech wood, and they managed to lift the bicycle over the
gates without any difficulty. The girl was a little surprised by the
unerring manner in which her companion seemed to go forward without
even once consulting a map; but when she complimented him on the fact
he looked a little uncomfortable, and assured her that he had an
excellent head for "direction."

It was very nice meeting some one who was "almost an Englishman," and
they talked gaily all the time, till the square tower of Dol Cathedral
came into view--one of the grandest, her guide assured her, that he had
seen in Brittany. They had just entered the outskirts of the town when
they passed a little _auberge_, where the innkeeper was standing at the
door. He stared very hard at them, then lifted his hat, and cried with
surprise, "Back again, monsieur; why, I thought you were half way to
St. Malo by this time."

Then the truth struck Barbara in a flash, and she had only to look at
her companion's face to know she was right.

"You were going the other way," she cried--"of course you were--and you
turned back on my account. No wonder you knew your way through the
wood!"

He gave an embarrassed laugh. "I'm sorry--I really did not mean to
deceive you exactly. I _have_ a good head for 'direction.'"

"And you came all that long way back with me I It _was_ good of you. I
really----"

But he interrupted her. "Please don't give me thanks when I don't
deserve them. This town is such a quaint old place I am quite glad to
spend the night here. And--I really think you ought not to go hither
and thither without the rest of the party--I don't think your aunt
would like it. The house you want is straight ahead." Then he took
off his cap and turned away, and Barbara never remembered, until he had
gone, that though he had seen her name on the label on her bicycle she
did not know his.

She christened him, therefore, the "American Pretender," firstly,
because he looked like an Englishman, and secondly, because he
pretended to be going where he was not. After all, she was not very
much behind her time, and, fortunately, Mademoiselle Therese had been
so interested in the lawyer's conversation that she had not worried
about her. Barbara did not speak of her encounter with the cyclist,
but merely said she had got out of her way a little, and had found a
kind American who had helped her to find it; which explanation quite
satisfied "the party."