of the most quiet and inoffensive persons. But the fault
lies with _you_, dear old boy!"

"With _me_!" exclaimed Philip.

"Certainly! Thelma's soul is as open as daylight--you shouldn't have had
any secret from her, however trifling. She's not a woman 'on
guard,'--she can't take life as the most of us do, in military fashion,
with ears pricked for the approach of a spy, and prepared to expect
betrayal from her most familiar friends. She accepts things as they
appear, without any suspicion of mean ulterior designs. It's a pity, of
course!--it's a pity she can't be worldly-wise, and scheme and plot and
plan and lie like the rest of us! However, _your_ course is plain--first
interview Lennox and then follow Thelma. She can't have left Hull
yet,--there are scarcely any boats running to Norway at this season.
You'll overtake her I'm certain."

"By Jove, Lorimer!" said Errington suddenly. "Clara Winsleigh sticks at
nothing--do you know she actually had the impudence to suggest that
_you_,--you, of all people,--were in love with Thelma!"

Lorimer flushed up, but laughed lightly. "How awfully sweet of her! Much
obliged to her, I'm sure! And how did you take it Phil?"

"Take it? I didn't take it at all," responded Philip warmly. "Of course,
I knew it was only her spite--she'd say anything in one of her tempers."

Lorimer looked at him with a sudden tenderness in his blue eyes. Then he
laughed again, a little forcedly, and said--

"Be off, old man, and get that whip of yours! We'll run Lennox to earth.
Hullo! here's Britta!"

The little maid entered hurriedly at that moment,--she came to ask with
quivering lips, whether she might accompany Sir Philip in his intended
journey to Norway.

"For if you do not find the Froeken at Hull, you will want to reach the
Altenfjord," said Britta, folding hands resolutely in front of her
apron, "and you will not get on without me. You do not know what the
country is like in the depth of winter when the sun is asleep. You must
have the reindeer to help you--and no Englishman knows how to drive
reindeer. And--and--" here Britta's eyes filled--"you have not thought,
perhaps, that the journey may make the Froeken very ill--and that when we
find her--she may be dying--" and Britta's strength gave way in a big
sob that broke from the depths of her honest, affectionate heart.

"Don't--_don't_ talk like that, Britta!" cried Philip passionately. "I
can't bear it! Of course, you shall go with