know all about it. So Miss Britton found that she and her niece were
objects of general interest, and they both struggled nobly to describe
the adventure intelligibly to the others, though Barbara knew that she
got horribly mixed in her French tenses, and was not quite sure whether
she understood all the questions the French people put to her. The
solicitor annoyed her most--he was so superior.

"Why did you not rush upon the fellow and scream for help?" he said.

"I was far too frightened to do anything of the kind," Barbara answered
indignantly. "I would never have dared to fling myself upon a dark
figure like that. If I had seen him, I shouldn't have minded so much."

"So you did not see his face?" said the solicitor.

"Of course I didn't," and Barbara spoke rather crossly. "If I had, I
should have gone and described him to the police the first thing this
morning."

She felt inclined to add that it was a pity he could not inculcate his
own children with some of his apparent courage, for they both seemed
far more frightened than interested in the story, and the son's eyes
looked as if they would jump out of his head. Perhaps the poor youth
was scolded for his timidity afterwards, for when Barbara passed their
room in going upstairs to get ready to go out, she heard the father
speaking in very stern tones, and the boy murmuring piteously, "Oh,
father! oh, father!"

Miss Britton was in a hurry to get out; but, as often happens, it
proved a case of "more haste, less speed," for they had just got into
the street when Barbara remembered she had left her purse behind, and
had to run back for it.

What was her astonishment on opening the bedroom door to see the
solicitor's son standing near the window. She had come upstairs very
softly, and he had not heard her till she was in the room; then he
turned round suddenly, and sprang back with a face filled with terror.

"What _are_ you doing here?" she exclaimed in astonishment, and at
first he could not answer for fright.

"I--I--came to look at the place where the man was last night," he
gasped at last, "and to see how he could get out of the window."

"Well, I think your curiosity has run away with your politeness,"
Barbara said. "You might have seen from the garden that the balcony is
quite close enough to the tree for any one to get out easily. Is there
anything else you would like to examine?"

She need hardly have asked, for he had hurried round to the