FESTIVITIES 102

VIII. PEER AND COMMONER 117

IX. THE NIGHT THAT FOLLOWED 133

X. OPEN CONFESSION IS GOOD FOR THE SOUL 148

XI. WHAT CAME WITH THE SNOW AND ICE 164

XII. JOHN GILPIN JOINS THE SPORT 182

XIII. A BAD DAY FOR JOHN GILPIN 193

XIV. EXPLANATIONS ARE IN ORDER 206

XV. MRS. JARLEY ENTERTAINS 221

XVI. A PERPLEXING PROBLEM OF LIFE 232

XVII. COMMENCEMENT; AND CONCLUSION 249

DOROTHY AT OAK KNOWE

CHAPTER I

ON THE ROAD TO OAK KNOWE

"This way for the Queen!"

"Here you are for the Duke of Connaught! Right this way!"

"Want the Metropole, Miss?"

"Room there, stupid! She's from the States--any fool could see that!
I'm from your hotel, little lady, the American. Your luggage, Miss,
allow me?"

If Dorothy's hands hadn't been too full, she would have clapped them
over her ears, to drown the cries of the hackmen who swarmed about her
as she stepped from the train at the railway station in Toronto. As it
was, she clung desperately to her bag and shawlstrap, which the man
from the American hotel seemed bound to seize, whether or no.

But her heart sank and it was a forlorn little girl, indeed, who
looked anxiously around seeking some face on which might be a smile of
welcome. But nobody paid any attention to her, except the obstreperous
hackmen, and in a sudden fright she let fall the tears she had so
bravely kept back until then. It had been a long and lonely journey,
but she had been assured that she would be promptly met and cared for
when it ended. Now, amid all the throng of travelers and those who
awaited them, not one was looking for a "dark haired girl in navy
blue" and the tears fell faster as she cried aloud:

"Oh! what shall I do! What shall I do!"

Even the hackmen had forsaken her in pursuit of other, more promising
patrons. The short autumn day was at its close and in the growing
darkness her fright increased and her usual common sense left her.
But, as she spoke, a hand was laid upon her shoulder and a rather
gruff voice demanded:

"Why, little stranger, what's a-troublin' ye?"

Dorothy winked her tears away and looked up into the face of an old
man, whose gray