time to take part in a game of 'Prisoners.' After that they had
one of 'Tip,' and one or two of 'Hop-Scotch,' then 'Prisoners' again; and
how many more Mona could never remember, for she had lost count of time,
and everything but the fun, until she was suddenly brought to her senses
by a man's voice saying, "Well, it's time they were in, the clock struck
seven ten minutes agone."

"Seven!" Mona was thunderstruck. "Did you say seven?" she gasped, and
scarcely waiting for an answer she took to her heels and tore up the
street to her home. Her mind was full of troubled thoughts. The fire
would be out, the house all in darkness. She had only pulled the front
door behind her, she had not locked it. Oh, dear! what a number of things
she had left undone! What a muddle she had made of things. When, as she
drew near the house, she saw a light shining from the kitchen window, her
heart sank lower than ever it had done before.

"Father must have come! Oh! and me not there, and--and nothing ready.
Oh, I wouldn't have had it happen for anything." She rushed up to the
house so fast and burst into the kitchen so violently that her mother, who
was sitting in her chair, apparently lost in thought, sprang up in alarm.

"Oh, Mona! it's you! You frightened me so, child. Where's your father,"
she asked anxiously. "Haven't you seen him?"

"No, he hasn't come yet."

Lucy's face grew as white as a lily. Her eyes were full of terror, which
always haunted her. "P'raps he came home while you were out, and went out
again when he found the house empty."

"He couldn't. I've been on the quay all the time. The boats couldn't
have come in without my seeing them. I was waiting for him. Everybody
was saying how late they were. They couldn't think why."

"Yes--they are dreadfully late--but I--I didn't think you'd have gone out
and left the house while I was away," said Lucy with gentle reproach.
"But, as you did, you should have locked the door behind you. I s'pose
Mr. King called before you left?"

"He hasn't been," faltered Mona, her heart giving a great throb. She had
entirely forgotten that the landlord's agent was coming for his rent that
afternoon. "The money's on the dresser. I put it there."

"Is it? I couldn't see it. I looked for it at once when I found the door
wide open and nobody here."

"Open! I shut it after me. I didn't lock it, but I pulled the door fast
after me. You can't have looked in the right pl