ms of the will romantic?'

'What will? and what terms?'--The defiance was in her eyes now.
'I cannot correct details if you keep to generals.'

'Your father's will, my dear; your father's and mother's I
should say, for she added her signature and confirmation. And
I'm sure _that_ was one remarkable thing. It is so uncertain how
boys will grow up.'

'And the romance?' said Wych Hazel. 'Will you tell me what
version of it you have heard?'

'Why, my dear, you know Dane is your guardian, don't you?'

The girl's heart gave a bound--but that could wait; just now
there was other business on hand.

'Well,' she said, 'is that the opening chapter? What comes
next? I cannot review in part.'

'But didn't you know that, my dear? Did they keep it from
you?'

Wych Hazel laughed,--Mrs. Coles was too much a stranger to her
to know how,--and took out her watch. 'I must go in ten
minutes,' she said,--'and I do want to hear this "romance,"
first. One's private affairs get such fresh little touches
from strange hands! Just see what a heading for your next
chapter, Mrs. Coles,--"_N.B._ The heroine did not know herself."
Will it take you more than ten minutes?' she added,
persuasively.

'If you didn't know, Primrose will be very angry with me,'
said the lady, not seeming terrified, by the way,--'and Dane
will be fit to take my head off. I had better go away before
he comes.'

'Why, he is not your guardian too, is he?' said the girl,
mockingly. 'That would prove him a man of more unbounded
resources than even I had reason to suppose.'

'No,' said Prudentia, 'it was the other way. I was his once,
practically. Not legally of course. That was my father. But do
tell me--_have_ I done something dreadful in telling you this?'

'I'll tell you things when you have told me,' said Wych Hazel.
'No cross-examination can go on from both sides at once. But I
have only nine minutes now; so your part of the fun, Mrs.
Coles, will be cut short, I foresee.'--Certainly Mrs. Coles
might well be puzzled. But Wych Hazel had met with her match.

'My dear,' the lady returned, 'what do you want me to say? If
you know about the will--that is what I was thinking of, I
don't want to say anything I should not say. I didn't know but
you knew.'

'And I didn't know but you _didn't_ know,' said Miss Kennedy,
feeling as nearly wild as anybody well could. 'If you do not,
and I do, it is just as well, I daresay.' And she rose up and
crossed the room to an o