nd bring him to you.'

But Mark declared he was quite himself again, and would have begged
her not to leave him if he had dared; and as there really did not seem
to be anything serious the matter, Mabel's uneasiness about Dolly
returned. 'I can't rest till I find her,' she said, 'and if you really
are strong again, will you help me? She cannot have gone very far.'

Mark, only too glad of any pretence to remain with her, volunteered
willingly.

'Then will you go round the field that way,' she said, 'and I will go
this, and we will meet here again?'

'Don't you think,' said Mark, who had not been prepared for this,
'that if--she might not know _me_, you see--I mean if I was not with
you?'

'Yes, she will,' said Mabel impatiently; 'Dolly won't forget you after
what you have done, and we are losing time. Go round by there, and
call her now and then; if she is here she will come, and if not then
we will try the next field.'

She went off herself as she spoke, and Mark had nothing for it but to
obey, as she so evidently expected to be obeyed. He went round the
field, calling out the child's name now and then, feeling rather
forlorn and ridiculous as his voice went out unanswered on the raw
air. Presently a burly figure, grotesquely magnified by the mist, came
towards him, and resolved itself into an ordinary guard.

'You one of the gentlemen in my train, sir?' he said, 'the train as
broke down, that is?'

'Yes,' said Mark; 'why?'

''Cause we've got the engine put to rights, sir; nothing much the
matter with her, there wasn't, and we're goin' on directly, sir; I'm
gettin' all my passengers together.'

Mark was in no hurry to leave that field, but his time was not his
own; he ought to have been at St. Peter's long ago, and was bound to
take the first opportunity of getting back. It would not be pleasant,
as it was, to have to go and fetch down his class from the sixth form
room, where the headmaster had probably given them a temporary asylum.

He had never forgotten a morning on which he had overslept himself,
and the mortification he had felt at the Doctor's blandly polite but
cutting reception of his apologies. He had a better excuse this time,
but even that would not bear overtaxing.

He hesitated a moment, however. 'I'll go in a minute,' he said, 'but
there's a lady and a little girl with a dog somewhere about. They
mustn't be left behind. Wait while I go and tell them, will you?'

'Never you fear, sir,' sa