k and wrote on it, "One line to say
you accept my gift and my good wishes. Put it under the cushion of your
chair, and I shall find it when the company have left the tent." He
slipped the paper into the case which held the bracelet, and instead of
leaving the farm as he had intended, turned back to the shelter of the
shrubbery.

CHAPTER XXI.

HARDYMAN went on to the cottage. He found Isabel in some agitation.
And there, by her side, with his tail wagging slowly, and his eye on
Hardyman in expectation of a possible kick--there was the lost Tommie!

"Has Lady Lydiard gone?" Isabel asked eagerly.

"Yes," said Hardyman. "Where did you find the dog?"

As events had ordered it, the dog had found Isabel, under these
circumstances.

The appearance of Lady Lydiard's card in the smoking-room had been an
alarming event for Lady Lydiard's adopted daughter. She was guiltily
conscious of not having answered her Ladyship's note, inclosed in
Miss Pink's letter, and of not having taken her Ladyship's advice in
regulating her conduct towards Hardyman. As he rose to leave the room
and receive his visitor in the grounds, Isabel begged him to say nothing
of her presence at the farm, unless Lady Lydiard exhibited a forgiving
turn of mind by asking to see her. Left by herself in the smoking-room,
she suddenly heard a bark in the passage which had a familiar sound in
her ears. She opened the door--and in rushed Tommie, with one of his
shrieks of delight! Curiosity had taken him into the house. He had heard
the voices in the smoking-room; had recognized Isabel's voice; and
had waited, with his customary cunning and his customary distrust of
strangers, until Hardyman was out of the way. Isabel kissed and caressed
him, and then drove him out again to the lawn, fearing that Lady Lydiard
might return to look for him. Going back to the smoking-room, she stood
at the window watching for Hardyman's return. When the servants came to
look for the dog, she could only tell them that she had last seen him
in the grounds, not far from the cottage. The useless search being
abandoned, and the carriage having left the gate, who should crawl out
from the back of a cupboard in which some empty hampers were placed but
Tommie himself! How he had contrived to get back to the smoking-room
(unless she had omitted to completely close the door on her return) it
was impossible to say. But there he was, determined this time to stay
with Isabel, and keeping i