-taken the short cut
through the woods. They looked as if they had roughed it. So
weather-beaten and worn!'

'This is an excitement,' Agatha said, turning round from her writing;
'what is Alick Lester like, Elfie?'

'Oh, I didn't notice, I hadn't time. They were both tall,
broad-shouldered men in rough shooting clothes, I think. Do you think
they will be paying us a visit, Agatha?'

'I suppose Mr. Alick Lester will,' and Agatha's face assumed rather an
anxious expression, as she remembered her charge.

'Where is he going to live, I wonder?' said Clare; 'it may seem to him
that we are usurpers. Do you think he knows about his father's legacy
to you, Agatha?'

Agatha shook her head doubtfully.

'I don't know. I suppose his lawyer will have told him, if he has been
to see him. I expect he will stay up at the Hall. Major Lester would
be hard-hearted indeed if he did not make him welcome after finding his
long-lost son!'

The next morning the whole village was in excitement with the news.
Miss Miller tore here and there, pulling at her bonnet strings, and
quite incoherent in her speech.

'The vicar is asking Alick to put up with us,' she said, meeting Agatha
out. 'It is very trying for him, poor fellow, to find both his father
and home taken from him, and it's not to be expected that he would stay
long at the Hall, and if his father hadn't died, you wouldn't be where
you are, and I suppose we did misunderstand him; but if he had come to
church regularly he would have found us his friends, and what he will
do now I can't think! I can't stop a minute; I must see Major Lester
before our quarterly meeting about church expenses, which takes place
this afternoon at two o'clock; and I have just remembered that the
bed-hangings of the spare room bed are at the laundry, and if Alick is
to sleep there to night I must superintend the cleaning of the room
myself!'

Agatha smiled as she returned home, and wondered if there was anything
in the vicarage or parish that Miss Miller did not superintend.

Early in the afternoon Clare, who was doing a little gardening, was
startled by the sudden appearance of Agatha in the greatest distress of
mind, and quite shaken out of her usual composure.

'Oh, Clare, whatever shall I do? I have lost a most important little
packet, and I am dreadfully afraid it has been stolen from me.'

'What packet?'

'A small packet Mr. Lester gave to me. I did not say anything about
it, be