nd
she felt quite happy again.

She was bright and cheerful during the drive home, so that the very
slight misgiving which the elder boys' manner had caused Mrs. Caryll
quite faded away, and she talked happily to her little niece of plans
for other half-holidays. It would be nice sometimes, she said, to invite
the Moor Edge party to Caryll for a change, 'though,' as she added with
a smile, 'they all say they don't care for anything there half as much
as for running wild on their dear moor.'

'The moor _is_ nice, isn't it, auntie?' said Rosamond. 'Such a
beautiful place for fancying things, with its being so wild and lonely.'

'You mustn't get your little head too full of fancies,' said her aunt.
'Has Pat been entertaining you with his pet stories? It is a pity that
he and Justin cannot be mixed up together, one is so much too dreamy,
and the other too rough and ready. But I hoped they were getting on
better together lately, though I was rather disappointed this evening,
Justin looked so cross.'

'I think Pat tries to be very nice to Justin,' said Miss Mouse. 'And
Justin wasn't at all cross when we were out.'

'I'm glad to hear it,' said her aunt. 'There is certainly room for
improvement in him. But I trust it is beginning. He has never been rude
or unkind to you, dear, I hope?'

'Oh no, auntie, though of course I've not seen much of him till to-day,'
answered Rosamond. 'I like him quite well--though not so much as Archie,
or--' with a little hesitation--'or Pat.'

CHAPTER IX

MISS MOUSE 'AT HOME'

The next half-holiday came on a Saturday--the Saturday of that same
week--and as the weather was lovely just then, Aunt Mattie begged her
sister to allow the three elder boys to spend it at Caryll, as she had
planned with Rosamond.

So it was arranged that, as soon as morning lessons were over, the four
children should walk back together in time for early dinner at
Rosamond's home. In one sense it was scarcely correct to call Saturday a
half-holiday, as the boys did not go to the vicarage at all that day,
though they were supposed to spend two hours at home in preparation of
Monday's lessons.

By twelve o'clock they were all under way, Rosamond feeling not a little
important at the prospect of acting hostess to the Hervey boys.

'How shall we go?' said Archie, as they stood on the drive for a moment
or two looking about them.

'By the moor, of course,' said Justin at once, 'turning down the path
that