one bell in the morning-room rang sharply she
was the first person to hear it. Hurrying toward it with the wild hope
that at last she was to hear news of Margaret, she caught up the
receiver.

"Hullo!" she heard, "are you there? Is that The Cedars? Mrs. Danvers? Who
then? I can't hear--Carson?--Eleanor Carson, you say? What! the young
lady who has been impersonating my wife's niece? Yes, I know all about
it. Yes--yes, I am telling you. Margaret Anstruther is here. I found her
myself, not half an hour ago, in a wood shed in the wood at the back of
our house here. She lost her way on the downs last night trying to get to
Mrs. Murray's. Yes--yes, well and safe. My wife has sent her to bed. She
has a temperature and a bad cold in the head. We have sent for a doctor.
No--no not ill, but it is best to be on the safe side. And I sent a motor
off ten minutes ago to let Mrs. Danvers know she is safe----" But the
rest was a buzzing noise only. Either they had been cut off or Sir
Richard had abruptly stopped speaking.

But Eleanor had heard enough. Margaret was safe. In her intense relief
and joy at the news Eleanor let the receiver fall with a clang, and when
Geoffrey and Maud, having heard her voice at the telephone, came flying
downstairs, they found her shedding tears of joy.

"Margaret is found!" she said in glad accents. "Sir Richard Strangways
has just telephoned." And she repeated to them the substance of what she
had heard.

"I wonder why they did not send her back here," said Maud presently, when
their first excitement was over.

"Because Margaret has evidently told them everything," replied Eleanor.
"For Sir Richard spoke of her as Margaret, and, of course, they know now
that she, not I, is Lady Strangways' niece."

"Is she really Lady Strangways' niece?" said Maud, in the wildest
astonishment, "but they did not seem to know each other."

"They didn't," said Eleanor, "or, of course, our plot would have been
found out at once. It's rather a long story to tell you now, but the gist
of it is that as Lady Strangways has been out of England for years she
and Margaret had never met. And so when Mrs. Murray told her that she had
a niece of Mr. Anstruther's staying with her--meaning me then, of
course--I had to pretend to be her niece. But she didn't take to me,"
added Eleanor ruefully.

CHAPTER XVI

CONCLUSION

After that events moved very quickly. When a few minutes later Mr.
Anstruther returned in a cab,