illiam, whose mouth and eyes were both watering for a taste of the fine
fruit thus offered, moved with alacrity to obey this invitation, while
I, more startled than pleased--or, rather, as much startled as
pleased--by the prospect of a momentary _tete-a-tete_ with our agreeable
neighbor, sat uneasily eying the luscious fruit in my hand, and wishing
I was ten years younger, that the blush I felt slowly stealing up my
cheek might seem more appropriate to the occasion.

But Mr. Trohm appeared not to share my wish. He was evidently so
satisfied with me as I was, that he found it difficult to speak at
first, and when he did--But tut! tut! you have no desire to hear any
such confidences as these, I am sure. A middle-aged gentleman's
expressions of admiration for a middle-aged lady may savor of romance to
her, but hardly to the rest of the world, so I will pass this
conversation by, with the single admission that it ended in a question
to which I felt obliged to return a reluctant _No_.

Mr. Trohm was just recovering from the disappointment of this, when
William sauntered back with his hands and pockets full.

"Ah!" that graceless scamp chuckled, with a suspicious look at our
downcast faces, "been improving the opportunity, eh?"

Mr. Trohm, who had fallen back against his old well-curb, surveyed his
young neighbor for the first time with a look of anger. But it vanished
almost as quickly as it appeared, and he contented himself with a low
bow, in which I read real grief.

This was too much for me, and I was about to open my lips with a kind
phrase or two, when a flutter took place over our heads, and the two
pigeons whose flight I had watched more than once during the last hour,
flew down and settled upon Mr. Trohm's arm and shoulders.

"Oh!" I exclaimed, with a sudden shrinking that I hardly understood
myself. And though I covered up the exclamation with as brisk a good-by
as my inward perturbation would allow, that sight and the involuntary
ejaculation I had uttered, were all I saw or heard during our hasty
drive homeward.

XXXVII

I ASTONISH MR. GRYCE AND HE ASTONISHES ME

But as we approached the group of curious people which now filled up the
whole highway in front of Mother Jane's cottage, I broke from the
nightmare into which this last discovery had thrown me, and, turning to
William, said with a resolute air:

"You and your sisters are not of one mind regarding these
disappearances. You ascribe them