tell you a precious secret--not a word to
anybody--honest?"

"Honest," she affirmed.

Bones looked round.

"It's practically ready for the publisher," he whispered, and stepped
back to observe the effect of his words.

She shook her head in admiration, her eyes were dancing with delight,
and Bones realized that here at last he had met a kindred soul.

"It must be awfully interesting to write books," she sighed. "I've
tried--but I can never invent anything."

"Of course, in my case----" corrected Bones.

"I suppose you just sit down with a pen in your hand and imagine all
sorts of things," she mused, directing her feet to the Residency.

"This is the story of my life," explained Bones earnestly. "Not
fiction ... but all sorts of adventures that actually happened."

"To whom?" she asked.

"To me," claimed Bones, louder than was necessary.

"Oh!" she said.

"Don't start 'Oh-ing,'" said Bones in a huff. "If you and I are going to
be good friends, dear old Miss Hamilton, don't say 'Oh!'"

"Don't be a bully, Bones." She turned on him so fiercely that he shrank
back.

"Play the game," he said feebly; "play the game, dear old sister!"

She led him captive to the stoep and deposited him in the easiest chair
she could find.

From that day he ceased to be anything but a slave, except on one point.

The question of missions came up at tiffin, and Miss Hamilton revealed
the fact that she favoured the High Church and held definite views on
the clergy.

Bones confessed that he was a Wesleyan.

"Do you mean to tell me that you're a Nonconformist?" she asked
incredulously.

"That's my dinky little religion, dear old Miss Hamilton," said Bones.
"I'd have gone into the Church only I hadn't enough--enough----"

"Brains?" suggested Hamilton.

"Call is the word," said Bones. "I wasn't called--or if I was I was
out--haw-haw! That's a rippin' little bit of persiflage, Miss Hamilton?"

"Be serious, Bones," said the girl; "you mustn't joke about things."

She put him through a cross-examination to discover the extent of his
convictions. In self-defence Bones, with only the haziest idea of the
doctrine he defended, summarily dismissed certain of Miss Hamilton's
most precious beliefs.

"But, Bones," she persisted, "if I asked you to change----"

Bones shook his head.

"Dear old friend," he said solemnly, "there are two things I'll never
do--alter the faith of my distant but happy youth, or listen to one
dispara