uldn't take her her tea if
she wasn't there, you know."

"It seems improbable, certainly." Mrs. Purcell's lips twitched again.

"Improbable, ma'am?" He was flustered on the instant. "Why, ma'am, where
would have been the sense of it? Unless there was some one to take tea
to--bless me, grandmother--why should Sue have sent the poor footy off
on a fool's errand? She rang for him, too," he summed up conclusively.

"Listen, Val; if you are not going to see Leonore when you call at her
father's house, if she is to be kept in the background there, you must
meet her elsewhere."

"But I don't think she goes elsewhere. Nobody's seen her, for I've
asked."

"Oh, you have asked?" She looked pleased; she had not expected so much
of him.

"Asked?--I've asked wherever I go, and not a soul has set eyes on her.
I'll tell you how I do it. I say in an easy kind of way, not as if I
cared, you know, but just like this, 'Any one seen Mrs. Stubbs yet?'--I
call her 'Mrs. Stubbs' not to seem too familiar--and, what do you think?
they laughed--Jimmy Tod and Merivale laughed--and Jimmy poked me with
his whip, and said: 'If _you_ haven't, old fellow, no one has'. Of
course they know I'm intimate with the Bolderos,"--and he drew up his
collar with an air.

"Why did you not mention this before, Val?"

Val looked foolish. For the life of him he could not think why, the
truth being that he had forgotten, but never supposed he could forget.

"Well, never mind," pursued his grandmother; "what I mean is that you
must meet your old playfellow out-of-doors, on her walks, or in the
woods, or wherever she goes. She must go out: she must take the air
somewhere,--and if you had had your wits about you, my dear boy, you
could have found out where to-day."

"You ought to have told me if you meant me to do that."

"Then you must stop her--don't let her pass without speaking--and ask
leave to join her--or them, if there are two,--but it would be better if
you could catch Leonore alone. Somehow I feel sure the poor little thing
is being kept away from us all," murmured the old lady pensively. "They
are masterful people, the Bolderos. And Leo is so sweet and gentle----"

"She's a Boldero though," struck in he. "And though she's sweet enough,
hang me if Leo can't stand up for herself! I used to die of laughing
when she tackled old Sue. Sue was afraid of her. You bet she hasn't
forgotten the time they all thought Leo lost, and she was found hiding
in a