. I thought it was at least the day before.'

'No,' said Frances, 'it was only yesterday. We went a long walk in the
afternoon, and of course we didn't see you till this morning. We
couldn't have told you till just now, and I thought--I think--I thought
Jass was waiting to speak to you alone after breakfast.'

'It wasn't that,' said Jacinth. 'If you want to know exactly why I
didn't begin about it at breakfast, Aunt Alison, it was because I had a
sort of idea or fancy that you had heard already from Lady Myrtle. I
thought you looked just a little annoyed, and I kept expecting you to
say something about it, and then, of course, I would have told you
everything there was to tell.'

Miss Alison Mildmay was severe, but she was not distrustful or
suspicious, and the candour of the two girls was unmistakable.

'I am sorry,' she said, 'to have judged you unfairly. Tell me the whole
story now, and then I will read you what this eccentric old lady says.'

She smiled a little.

'That was just what she said you'd call her,' broke in Frances. 'But she
said her letter would make you understand.'

'Oh yes, of course it does, to a certain extent,' replied her aunt. Then
her eyes fell on the envelope--'Miss Alison Mildmay.'

'Considering I have lived twenty years at Thetford,' she said, rather
bitterly, 'I think it, to say the least, unnecessary to address me like
this, though of course I don't deny that it is, strictly speaking,
correct.'

Jacinth glanced at it.

'I am sure'--she began. 'You don't think _I_ had anything to do with
it?'

'Oh no, I don't suppose you ever thought of it. But Lady Myrtle Goodacre
has never seen fit to call upon me, so it is all of a piece. I really
must not waste any more time, however; I have a dozen things waiting for
me to do. You say it was yesterday afternoon?'

'Yes,' said Jacinth. 'We went a long walk--to Aldersmere, and coming
back, Eugene was tired and very thirsty, and he begged us to let him ask
for a drink just as we were getting near Robin Redbreast, and the old
lady heard us talking over the wall'----

'And she heard Jass's name,' interrupted Frances, 'and'----

'Let Jacinth tell it, if you please, Frances,' said Miss Mildmay.

So Jacinth took up the story again, and related all that had happened.

Her aunt listened attentively, her face softened.

'I don't think I need read you what Lady Myrtle has written, after all,'
she said, when Jacinth had finished speaking. 'I unde