e on the
cedar when she returned from a drive with her uncle one morning. She could
hardly eat her luncheon for eagerness to know what the discovery might
be, and the sound of Maurice's low whistle further upset her.

Mrs. Whittredge was rigid where table manners were concerned. Rosalind
might not be excused until every one had finished; and to-day Uncle Allan
dallied over his dessert, discussing business and the new mills with his
mother, while Rosalind's impatience grew.

She looked up despairingly at the stern countenance of Great-uncle Allan,
and then at the placid smile of his Matilda, which seemed a rebuke to her
restlessness. "I wonder what you did with your satin dress?" she suddenly
remarked aloud.

Grandmamma turned toward her in surprise, and Allan, deep in a description
of the manufacture of a new kind of paper, looked at her blankly.

"Do you think it is polite to interrupt?" asked Mrs. Whittredge.

"I beg your pardon, Uncle Allan, I was just thinking. I did not mean to
say it out loud," Rosalind explained, in great contrition.

"Evidently you were not interested in my learned discourse," he said,
with a terrible frown, which was not at all alarming.

The diversion, however, caused him to remember his pudding, and in a few
minutes Rosalind was free to join Maurice and Katherine at the gate.

Belle, who had called the meeting, was waiting for them at the top of the
hill.

"I thought you were never coming," she cried; "we have made such a
discovery!" And as they walked toward the house she explained that her
mother had sent her that morning with a message to Miss Celia, and not
finding her at home, she and Jack, who was with her, went over to the
Gilpin place to wait. As they wandered about the grounds, something put it
into Jack's head to try one of the cobwebby cellar windows, and lo! it
opened. Poking their heads in, they saw it was over a stairway, which
could be easily reached by walking a few feet on a ledge of stone.
Delighted with the discovery, they scrambled in, and making their way up
the steps found the door at the top unbolted.

"Jack opened it and peeped into the hall, and then we were as scared as
anything, and ran, and oh! we had such a time getting out. Now, what do
you think of it? We can look for the ring really!" Belle paused, out of
breath.

"What fun!" cried Rosalind.

"Just what we have been wishing for," added Maurice. "I have been trying
to think how we could get in."