ely
better medium than the _Evening Mail_! How very, very good of him--this
explained Kate's inability to find the MS!

Her eyes tore up and down the folded sail;--this sentence was
different--sharper, pithier, better rounded than she had written it. A
soliloquy was missing there--and better so, its inclusion would have
been a mistake. Oh, how good, how good he was! Her quivering fingers
fumbled with the folding--Lynn and Max would forgive her for spoiling
their boat when they knew--when she showed them her name in print.

Ah, how hungry were her eyes for the sight of it, the sight of the
simple name "Agnes Bibby" at the head of her first signed story--the
story that was to take away the reproach from the name that the
ill-starred interview had brought!

Then the heavens clapped down on her head and the deadliest sickness
assailed her.

The heading of the columns said the _Hypocrites_, and the line beneath
"By Hugh Kinross."

CHAPTER XXII

A MASTER MIND

Hugh had come back. When he had gone away he had taken with him one
small portmanteau that went easily into the luggage rack above his head.
But on the return journey he had quite a little sum to pay for excess
luggage.

For instance no railway carries a motor bicycle for the consideration
tendered to it for a passenger ticket. And a motor bicycle was amongst
the things turned out on the Burunda platform when Hugh came back, and,
to the astonishment of Kate who had gone to meet him, claimed by him.

"My dear fellow," she exclaimed when assured it was unmistakably his,
"how glad I am! I knew you would come to it sooner or later. Oh, what
rides we will have together!" Her face beamed.

"Preserve us!" said Hugh; "Melbourne is not responsible for developing
maniacal symptoms in me, I assure you. It's for you, of course."

"You mad boy," said Kate, "haven't I already the best you could buy?"

"But it turns your little face red," said Hugh, "and makes your little
heart beat too fast on these hills. This one won't."

And then it was that Kate discovered the motor attachment of the new
machine and was divided between ecstasy and economic qualms.

Hugh swiftly laid the latter. The speculation had gone well--better than
his best expectations; he had to break out somewhere, he said.

The breaking out included a tricycle for Muffie, who was ever in hot
water with Max for stealing rides on "Trike" just when that gentleman
needed the steed himself. A splend