everywhere she
seemed to see the face of Timothy Smith. Then her heart gave a bound as
she saw, leaning against the wicket-gate of the village inn, three
men--two with the most villainous faces she had ever seen, and the third
bore the face of the man that Fanny had described as the pedlar. She was
not mistaken, then, when she thought they would make this their
headquarters.

She drew bridle as she neared the inn. Her quick brain saw the necessity
of it, if but to explain her presence there.

"Will you be so good as to ask the landlady to come out to me?" she
asked, with a gracious smile--the smile that the villagers always said
was "Miss Patty's own."

The pedlar lifted his cap with the same air that Fanny had so accurately
described, and himself undertook to go upon the mission.

"Bless you, Miss Patty," exclaimed the buxom landlady as she came out,
curtseying and smiling, followed in a leisurely manner by the pedlar,
"where be you a-ridin' that Black Bess be so hot and foam-like about the
mouth?"

Patty stooped forward and patted her horse's neck, fully aware that
three pairs of ears at the wicket-gate were being strained to catch her
answer.

"It is too bad of me to ride her so fast, Mrs. Clark. The fact of the
matter is I ought to be at Miss Price's this moment for tennis and tea,
but I am late, and have been trying to make up for lost time. However, I
must not breathe Black Bess too much, must I, or else I shall not be
allowed to ride her again?" and Patty smiled her bewitching smile,
which always captivated the heart of the landlady of the Roaring Lion.

An order for supplies for the servants' cellar, given in a firm voice,
justified her appearance in the village and satisfied the eager
listeners as to the object of her visit, after which, with a nod and a
smile, Patty rode onwards.

Not till she was out of sight and hearing of the village did she urge
Black Bess to the top of her bent, and they flew onwards like the wind.

Thud, thud, thud went the horse's hoofs, keeping time to the beating of
Patty's heart as she recalled again and again the villainous faces
leaning over the wicket-gate.

Even Black Bess seemed to realise the importance of her mission and it
was not long before Patty's heart grew lighter as she caught sight not
very far off of the spire of Trinity Church, and the turreted roof of
the Town Hall of Frampton. Reaching the town she drew rein at Major
Price's house, where, with bated br