nd! With
characteristic Charrington impetuosity she beheld ruin stalk towards
her, and the faces of brothers and sisters filled with a pale reproach.
Her head dropped forward on to the table; the tears rolled down her
cheeks. She was just about to indulge in the luxury of a good cry, when
suddenly there was a sound in the room, an exclamation of distress, and
there stood the Hermit, picking up the hat which still lay on the table,
and murmuring disconnected sentences of explanation.

"I forgot my hat. The door was still open; I forgot to shut it. I
turned back--_Crying_! I hope that I--that nothing that I have said--I
should be most distressed--"

Philippa stared at him helplessly. Her impulse was to deny the
suggestion with scorn, but how was that possible with the tears rolling
down her cheeks? She tried to control herself, to steady her voice
sufficiently to reply, but the floodgates were open and could not be
restrained. An agony of dread seized her lest she should humiliate
herself still further, and, pointing to the door with childlike
helplessness, she sobbed out a pitiful "Please, go--please, go!" and
buried her face in her hands.

The Hermit crept back to his room, but he could not work. Between
himself and his books rose the vision of a girl's face, tremulous and
tearful. The dark eyes looked into his with pathetic reproach. He
called himself a brute and a coward for having dared to distress her.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN.

THE CULPRIT DISCOVERED.

Acting on the rule of all good housewives, Philippa breathed no word of
the unpleasant incident of the afternoon until dinner was over, and the
workers had been fed and rested after their day's labours. Stephen, it
is true, noted the pucker on her brow, and questioned her dumbly across
the table; but she frowned a warning, and eagerly questioned the girls
as to the success of their expedition. The circulars, it appeared, were
promised in a week's time; and pending their arrival Hope had called on
the vicar on the way home, and arranged to give her first performance to
the members of his infant class on the following Monday. She had
confided to him her anxiety to rehearse her entertainment, and he had
laughingly promised to find her occupation for as many nights as she
liked to give, either in his own parish or in those neighbouring ones
which were even more in need of help.

"So you will gain experience and do good at the same time--a most
agreeabl