, after a word of
greeting to Miss Ward and the elder boys, whom she had not seen before
that day. 'It's getting rather late.'

Rosamond jumped up.

'I can come now, auntie,' she said. 'I've had quite enough tea.' But
this Mrs. Caryll would not allow.

'I can wait five or ten minutes longer,' she said, looking at her watch.
'Perhaps Miss Ward can spare me a cup of tea.'

Miss Ward was delighted to do so, and Archie was on his feet in an
instant, ringing the bell and then running out into the passage to save
time by meeting the servant and asking for another cup and saucer.

'And have you had a pleasant afternoon?' said Aunt Mattie, when she was
seated at the table. 'Have you no adventures to tell me about, Jus? or
you, Pat?'

She looked at the two boys a little curiously, for she had noticed that
they were silent and rather gloomy.

'It was all right,' said Justin in his somewhat surly way. 'We didn't
keep together all the time. I don't know what the others were doing.'

'Oh! it was lovely,' exclaimed Rosamond, 'Pat and Archie and I were----'

'Miss Mouse does so like the moor,' interrupted Pat, 'though there
wasn't any sunset to speak of this evening.'

And again Rosamond felt a warning touch on her foot as Pat went on
talking rather eagerly about the sunsets that were sometimes to be seen,
which interested his aunt, and turned the conversation from what the
children had been about that special afternoon.

The little girl felt uneasy and perplexed. Were the boys afraid of her
'tale-telling,' as they called it? And even if she had told everything
that had happened that afternoon, what harm would it have done, or who
could have found fault with it? Nothing could have been prettier or
nicer than Nance's story, and Rosamond felt sure that she was a good old
woman. She had been so afraid of their doing anything that Mr. and Mrs.
Hervey might not like too, and her whole manner showed how much respect
she felt for the boys' parents.

'I'm _sure_,' thought Miss Mouse, 'nobody could think it wasn't nice for
us to go there. I don't understand what the boys mean. I suppose it's
just that they've different ways from girls, and like to be very
independent. And I promised them I wouldn't tell things over if they'd
rather I didn't. So I won't, unless of course it was anything _wrong_,
and then I'd have to, but I'd first tell them what I meant to do.'

And with this decision in her mind the little girl's face cleared, a