o it as a
compromise, being better than nothing.

Jeffreys would fain have evaded this unexpected service.

"I have no skates," he said, when Mr Rimbolt proposed it.

"Yes; the ironmonger sent up a pair for me, and as I can't use them you
are welcome to them."

"Did you not want the books from Sotheby's collated before to-morrow?"

"No, Saturday will do. Honestly, Jeffreys, I would be more comfortable,
so would Mrs Rimbolt, if you went. We have experience of the care you
take of Percy. So, you see, I ask a favour."

It was useless to hold out.

"I will go," said he; and it was settled.

An hour later Scarfe, Percy, Jeffreys, and Julius stood at the hall door
ready to start.

"Where's Raby, I say?" cried Percy; "she said she'd come."

"I do not wish Raby to go."

"Oh, look here, mother, as if we couldn't look after her; eh, Scarfe?"

"It will be no pleasure without Miss Atherton," said Scarfe.

"Can't she come, father?" said Percy, adroitly appealing to Caesar.

"I really think it would be a pity she should miss the fun."

"Huzzah! Raby, where are you? Look sharp! father says you can come,
and we're waiting!" cried Percy.

Raby, who had been watching the party rather wistfully, did not keep
them long waiting.

Wellmere was a large lake some five miles long and a mile across. In
times of frost it not unfrequently became partially frozen, but owing to
the current of the river which passed through it, it seldom froze so
completely as to allow of being traversed on skates. This, however, was
an extraordinary frost, and the feat of the adventurer on New Year's Day
had been several times repeated already.

The Wildtree party found the ice in excellent order, and the
exhilarating sensation of skimming over the glassy surface banished for
the time all the unpleasant impressions of the walk. It was several
years since Jeffreys had worn skates, but he found that five minutes was
sufficient to render him at home on the ice. He eschewed figures, and
devoted himself entirely to straightforward skating, which, as it
happened, was all that Percy could accomplish--all, indeed, that he
aspired too.

It therefore happened naturally that Scarfe and Raby, who cultivated the
eccentricities of skating, were left to their own devices, while
Jeffreys, accompanied of course by Julius, kept pace with his young hero
for the distant shore. It was a magnificent stretch. The wind was
dead, the ice was perfect, and t