would have
served their country quite well. But I stuck to it that they were too
near head-quarters. They would be sure to get found out by Miss
Huntingdon.

"It is true," she meditated, "she _is_ a prying old cat."

"I don't see anybody for it but Miss Irma, over at my grandmother's!" I
said, boldly striking the blow to which I had been so long leading up.

Charlotte gazed at me so long and so intently that I was sure she smelt
a rat. But the pure innocence of my gaze, and the frank readiness with
which I gave my reasons, disarmed her.

"You see," I said, "she is the only girl quite out of the common run to
whom you have access. You can go to Heathknowes as often as you like
with Agnes Anne. Nobody will say a word. They will think it quite
natural--to hear the latest about me, you know. Then when you are alone
with Miss Irma, you can burst into tears and tell her our secret----"

"All----?" she questioned, with strong emphasis.

"Well," I hastened to reply, "all that is strictly necessary for a
stranger to know--as, for instance, that _you_ don't want to marry me,
and that _I_ never wanted to marry you----"

"Oh," she cried, moving in a shocked, uneasy manner, "but I thought
_you_ did!"

"Well, but--," I stammered, for I was momentarily unhinged, "you see you
must put things that way to get Miss Irma to help us. She can do
anything with my father, and I believe she could with yours too if she
got a chance."

"Oh, no, she couldn't!"

"Well, anyway, she would serve us faithfully, so long as we couldn't
trust Agnes Anne. And you know we agreed upon that. If you can think of
anything better, of course I leave it to you!"

She sat a long while making up her mind, with a woman's intuition that
all the cards were not on the table. But in the long run she could make
no better of it.

"Well, I will," she said; "I always liked her face, and I don't believe
she is nearly so haughty as people make out."

"Not a bit, she isn't----" I was beginning joyously, when I caught
Lottie's eye; "I mean--" I added lamely, "a girl always understands
another girl's affairs, and will help if she can--unless she has herself
some stake in the game!"

And in saying this, I believe that for once in a way I hit upon a great
and nearly universal truth.

CHAPTER XXVIII

LOVE AND THE LOGICIAN

I knew that the Yule Fair was going on down in the village, and that on
account of it all Eden Valley was in an uproar. The clamour