e might have been buried alive in that awful place."

Rex took out his handkerchief and mopped his forehead, looking anxiously
at his companion the while. "You don't think you will be ill, do you,
Norah? You look horribly white."

"Oh no!--oh no! I shall be all right in an hour, but I shall never
forget it. Rex, I think we ought to be awfully good all our lives--we
have had such a wonderful escape, and we know now how it feels-- When I
thought I was never going to come out of that passage, I was sorry I had
been cross to Hilary, and--so selfish! I made up my mind if I had
another chance--"

"I don't believe you have ever done anything wrong, Norah," said Rex, in
a low, husky voice. There was a long silence, then--"My father will
feel inclined to kill me when he hears about this!" he added shortly.

Norah started. "But need we tell them? I don't think it would be wrong
to say nothing about it. We are safe, and it has taught us to be more
careful in future. It would only upset everyone, and make them
miserable, if they knew we had been in such danger. I'll slip quietly
to my room, and it shall be a secret between us, Rex--you and I."

Rex looked at her in silence, with his big, keen eyes. "You are the
best little soul in the world, Norah," he said. "I wish I were like
you!"

CHAPTER ELEVEN.

THE NEW MARY.

Norah was white and subdued for the rest of the evening, but as she was
a stranger to three out of the four members of the household, this
unusual fact attracted little attention. It was taken for granted that,
like Edna, she was exhausted by the excitement of the first music
lesson, and both girls were despatched to bed at an early hour.

Next morning Rex hied off to the Vicarage, to work for a couple of hours
with the vicar, a scholarly recluse, with whom he was reading for
college, and the girls were left alone to pursue their acquaintance.
Conversation naturally turned on Rex, but Edna told the story of his
discontent from a fresh point of view.

"Father doesn't ask him to choose a profession if he would rather go
into business, but he thinks every man is the better for a college
education, and that Rex is too young to decide for himself until he is
twenty-one. If he works till then, he can do what he likes in the
future. But Rex is so obstinate; he thinks he is a man because he is
nearly eighteen, and wants to have his own way at once. It makes father
so angry."

Norah pursed up h