r
Burnett's sister, and then there was simply no quieting her till I'd
taken the car and run over to see what there was in the story. Mind
you, I didn't think there was a word of truth in it myself; but when
I'd got here, by Jingo, there I saw Miss Holland's tweed coat in the
hall! Now that's a funny kettle of fish, isn't it?"

I didn't say so, but I had to admit that he was not so very far wrong.
The audacity of the performance was quite worthy of Tiel, but its utter
recklessness seemed not in the least like him. Had the vanishing
governess's employer been any one less easy-going than Mr Craigie, how
readily our whole scheme might have been wrecked! Even as it was, I
saw detection staring me straight in the face. However, I put on as
cool and composed a face as I could.

"I understood that Miss Holland's brother had written to you about it,"
I said brazenly.

"Oh! he is really her brother, is he?" said he, looking at me very
knowingly.

"Certainly."

"He being Burnett and she Holland, eh?"

"You have heard of half-brothers, haven't you?" I inquired with a
condescending smile.

"Oh, I have heard of them," winked Mr Craigie as good-humouredly as
ever; "only I never happened to have heard before of half-sisters
running away from a situation they'd taken without a word of warning,
just whenever their half-brothers whistled."

"Did Mr Burnett whistle?" I inquired, with (I hope) an air of calm and
slightly superior amusement.

"Some one sent her a wire, and I presume it was Mr Burnett," said he.
"By Jingo!"

He stopped suddenly with an air as nearly approaching excitement as was
conceivable in such a gentleman.

"What's the matter?" I asked a trifle anxiously.

"One might get a good one about how to make a governess explode, the
answer being 'Burn it!' By Jove, I must think that out."

Before I could recover from my amazement at this extraordinary
attitude, he had suddenly resumed his shrewd quizzical look.

"Are you an old friend of Mr Burnett?" he inquired.

"Oh, not very," I said carelessly.

"Then perhaps you'll not be offended by my saying that he seems a rum
kind of bird," he said confidentially.

"In what way?"

"Well, coming up here just for a Sunday to preach a sermon, and then
not preaching it, but staying on as if he'd taken a lease of the
manse--him and his twelve-twenty-fourths of a sister!"

"But," I stammered, before I could think what I was saying, "I thought
he did preach las